A Hard Man To Predict
by CxMinette
Summary: It runs in the family...
1. It has begun

Unless Disney decides to give me a really nice birthday present, I don't own any of the characters or the film bla bla bla...  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
***  
  
He watches her, enjoying that gentle unconscious sway of her hips. Never has he seen a woman so without artifice - how did she end up here? Under the control of a woman like Scarlet.He takes another gulp of rum and continues to watch. The dress of her occupation doesn't suit her, and she has no need of the make up that is smothering her features. Not for long can his reverie last, not in this place.  
  
'Jack!'  
  
He turns, and there she is, the woman who rules all those under her control with a rod of iron.  
  
'Scarlet! Tell me, what does a man with time to kill 'ave to do to get some service around 'ere?'  
  
She giggles.  
  
'Oh, one drink and I'm anybody's.'  
  
'One drink and a handful of gold you mean.'  
  
She giggle again, and perches herself on his lap, so she can whisper in his ear.  
  
'I've got a new one here tonight - green as they come. Fresh and unplucked, as it were. I thought you might like to be the one to break her in for me.'  
  
He glances around the room.  
  
'Where?'  
  
She points.  
  
'There.'  
  
It's the girl he has been watching. He turns back to Scarlet.  
  
'What's 'er name?'  
  
Scarlet thinks for a moment.  
  
'Maggie. She's from - damn I've forgotten. Somewhere far off anyway. She turned up the day before yesterday, looking for a job. She's pretty, so she got one. Simple.'  
  
'She looks awful young to be one of your girls.'  
  
'Oh she is, she is, but like I said she's pretty and could be making a lot of money in the not too distant future.'  
  
'But 'ow much for tonight?'  
  
Scarlet throws up her hands in mock delight. 'I knew the prospect of fresh blood would get you. Seeing as how you're such a valued customer, only five.'  
  
He reaches into his coat and pulls out a bag that chinks as it moves. He takes out five gold coins and hands them to Scarlet.  
  
'Pleasure doing business with you Jack.'  
  
Scarlet gets up, and walks across the crowded bar to the girl. Jack simply absorbs himself in his rum until she gets back, tugging the wretched creature behind her.  
  
'Here you are Jack. Maggie, this is Captain Jack Sparrow. Treat him nice now.'  
  
Scarlet throws Maggie unceremoniously in Jack's direction, and bustles off. Jack looks Maggie up and down, this latest recruit to Scarlet's painted army. She looks terrified, but is trying to put on a brave front.  
  
'So you're Captain Jack Sparrow. I've heard all about you' she says, after a moment.  
  
She looks so tense he can hardly stand it.  
  
'Look love, let me get you a drink eh? You just sit 'ere and wait till I get back.'  
  
Before she can answer her gets up and sways off in the direction of the bar. He orders her a pint and gets himself another rum. Just as the barman returns, Jack hears a high pitched scream from behind him. It's Maggie. Another pirate is holding her at sword point, and Scarlet is trying to calm the situation.  
  
'This one's taken for the night,' she's saying. 'Have another one of my girls, or come back tomorrow.'  
  
He doesn't say a word, simply presses his sword harder against Maggie's throat until a tiny trickle of blood runs down her neck and her dress. She lets out a small squeal of pain. Jack forgets all about the drinks, and in a second is pressing his pistol into the temple of the other pirate.  
  
'Jack, no!' Jack pretends he can't hear Scarlet's plea. Death is bad for business.  
  
'Get out of 'ere, and never come back, alright? Or else my damn face is the last thing you'll ever see.'  
  
The pirate's sword falls to the floor, load in the now silent bar, and he raises his hands.  
  
'Don't shoot!' he begs.  
  
Jack tucks his pistol back into his belt, and frogmarches the man to the door before kicking him, literally, into the street.  
  
Maggie is clutching at her throat, crying and gasping for breath.  
  
'Thank you Captain, thank you so much, I don't know what to say.'  
  
Scarlet cuts across her. 'Thanks a bunch Jack, you lost me a customer.'  
  
She sweeps off into the crowd, and is lost to sight. But Jack isn't staring after her.  
  
'Don't be thanking me love. You're mine for tonight and no one else is going to touch you. Savvy?'  
  
She nods a mute yes.  
  
'Now, let me look at your throat girl.'  
  
Obediently, she tips her head back.  
  
'Nothin' but a scratch. You'll be fine.'  
  
She looks at him, all innocence with the question in her eyes: what happens now?  
  
'Why don't we go and clean that mess off your neck. Hm?'  
  
She nods, but doesn't move. He sighs in an exasperated way. This had better be worth the effort, he thought.  
  
'You have a jug and basin in your room?'  
  
Understanding dawns in her grey-green eyes, and she bows her head like one going to the scaffold.  
  
'Yes, it's this way.'  
  
He takes her hand, and follows her to the stairs he has been up a hundred times before, but never with a girl, he feels, quite like this one.  
  
***  
  
Little bit of a cliff hanger but this is my first ever fanfic so I need to know if it's any good! Go on, push that little button and send me a review. 


	2. We have an accord

Once again I don't own the film or anything to do with it- excuse me while I have a little cry - ok here is chapter 2 and thanks to Novalea for being my very first reviewer!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Her room is small and dark, like all the rooms here except Scarlet's. The sounds of drunken laughter and bar brawls and the occasional scream filter up from below and from the street outside. Torch light shines in from under the thin, filthy curtains. The bed is hard and creaks alarmingly in time to the rhythm of their movement.  
  
It was worth the effort, Jack thought to himself as he feels her shiver under him with the excitement of his touch. Scarlet knows him well, knows how to please him but she is tough and brittle. Maggie is smooth, pliable and, as he had discovered minutes earlier, unplucked, just as Scarlet had promised.  
  
Her eyes aren't hollow like other whores he's been with, they sparkle with real pleasure. Rather than the fake cries of the others, her cries are real. Has he ever felt this good with a woman he's paid for? No, he thinks not.  
  
She is growing in confidence as they go on. Their eyes lock, and he feels as if he can see straight into her soul. A mischievous glint glimmers in their depths for a moment, and she squeezes him between her legs, hard. He shouts with the pleasure of it and the release as he spills himself into her. He feels her legs tighten around him at the same moment, as they come together.  
  
He rolls off her, and they lie panting side by side with the ecstasy of it.  
  
'Jack.' she begins, but hasn't the breath to finish the sentence.  
  
'Yes, love?'  
  
'Jack, you know that was the first'-  
  
He stops her by rolling onto his side and putting a finger to her lips.  
  
'I know, love. We all 'ave to start somewhere.'  
  
'Where did you start?'  
  
'With Scarlet. So we've come full circle you might say.'  
  
She laughs. She has a beautiful laugh, he thinks. As beautiful as the rest of her- his gave sweeps down her tired body, full of admiration. Jack feels even more now that she belongs to him. He doesn't want anyone else to have her, at least, not while he's in Tortuga.  
  
'Maggie, I'd like to see you again, if that's alright with you.' What am I saying? He thinks to himself. What should she care, as long as she gets the money?  
  
She smiles a little. 'Sure Captain, whatever you like.'  
  
'But do you want to?' What a question to ask! Maybe, he justifies it to himself, maybe it's because she's so young.  
  
'Sure' she says again.  
  
So young, he thinks. Such a shame. In a few years her beauty will be gone and she'll be needing all that makeup. There is silence for what seems like an age while Jack thinks through the comforting idea in his head.  
  
'I'll tell you what I'll do, Maggie,' Jack says as he reaches a decision. 'I'll take you for the whole of this week, and you're not to let another man lay a hand on you, savvy?'  
  
She shakes her head. 'Scarlet would never allow it - she says her girls aren't allowed to be exclusive.'  
  
Jack laughs. 'I'm sure I can talk her round somehow. But,' he says, rolling back onto her, as the sight of her body laid out for him has piques his interest again, 'I paid for you for the whole night. I don't 'ave to go until dawn, so I think I'll be staying to get my money's worth.'  
  
Maggie giggles, and finds that she likes this man enough to even let him kiss her, although she knows she's not supposed to.  
  
--------------  
  
'No way!'  
  
'But why not?'  
  
'Because any girl under my roof is on the understanding that the most she can be bought for is one night and one night only. Not for two nights even, and certainly not for a whole week!'  
  
'I thought it might come to this Scarlet. I 'ad 'oped that we were good enough friends for you to just accept the five gold pieces a night for 'er, but evidently not.' He reaches into his coat, and pulls out the same clinking bag she saw the night before.  
  
'There are fifty in 'ere Scarlet. Fifty. Now, can I take Maggie for the whole week?'  
  
Scarlet is no fool, Jack knows. When it comes to a choice between principles or money, he knows which she'll take. She snatches the bag off the table, and stashes it away in her pocket.  
  
'Only up until Saturday.' Jack grins. 'We 'ave an accord.'  
  
*** Well here we go, chapter 2! Please review again, you know you want to. Or else..um...or else...ok I don't have an or else. Hm. Must come up with one. 


	3. If every town in the world were like thi...

Thanks to my darling wonderful Katrina for helping with all this - the whole story is really a mutual thing, I just do the writing. I don't own the story etc. etc. etc. .  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Jack wakes up slowly. Maggie is still asleep beside him, and barely stirs as he gets out of bed. These last few days have been amazing for him, and the nights just keep getting better and better. Tonight though, tonight is the last night he has with her before he leaves Tortuga for God knows how long. It's that or get caught - he's heard that the redcoats are still after him.  
  
He dresses silently, trying not to wake her until he has to. He finds his shirt behind the door, his jacket partly under the bed, and his hat - where's his hat? He looks around for it, and sees it slung on top of Maggie's dressing table. He sweeps it up casually, and knocks something to the floor with a crash. Maggie stirs, but sinks back into sleep.  
  
Jack bends down and picks up the object, turning it over and over in his hands. It's a bird, a phoenix he thinks, carved of some kind of dark wood. Thanks to its fall, it's lost the tip of one tail feather. He'll have to admit to that later. He puts it down on the table, and walks softly around to where Maggie lies sleeping. He leans downs and kisses her cheek gently. She opens her eyes blearily and smiles up at him.  
  
'I 'ave to go now, love'  
  
'See you tonight, Jack.'  
  
He hates the way she only calls him Jack when they're together in a very literal sense, or when she's hardly aware of it. The rest of the time she calls him Captain. He must tell her not to, it cuts him to shreds every time. He tiptoes out of her room, down the corridor, down the stairs and out into the morning light of Tortuga. The streets are covered with the drunk or the dead, with various maids out heading to the market. They must be maids, as the whores would still be in bed at this time. Just like Maggie is.  
  
Jack hates to think of her as a whore, even though she is one, even though she is his whore. He hates to think of her with another man, after he's gone. He knows she hates being one; he knows she was respectable, once. She was a maid for some rich woman, her and her sister. Shame how she is all alone now. Maybe he should do something for her, leave her some money.she won't see much of what he gave Scarlet for her.  
  
He's reached the docks now, and is heading for his ship. It's not really his; he stole it from another pirate, a female one, unusually, only a short while ago. He needs to tell the men on guard to round up the rest of the crew so they can prepare to set sail tomorrow. But as he turns the corner that will bring him in sight of the ship, he sees red, everywhere. Redcoats and yet more redcoats are passing down the line of ships that are docked here. Jack knows his time is up, there's no way he can escape from them, no way can he get his ship out before they reach it.  
  
He doesn't panic, he only thinks of Maggie. He can't leave her with no means to support herself, he won't leave her in the brothel to become hard and bitter like Scarlet can be.  
  
He breaks into a run, knowing that in his cabin on his newly commandeered ship is a chest full of silver that arrived as part of a package deal with the ship. They haven't seen him yet, as he speeds up the gangplank, past his panic-stricken guards, and along the deck, into his cabin. He kicks the chest open, and shoves as much as he can of the contents into the nearest bag he can find.  
  
As he runs back down the gangplank, they spot him. He runs faster and faster, back to the brothel. He crashes through the door, back up the stairs and into Maggie's room where she is sitting on her bed, brushing her hair.  
  
'What's wrong? What's happening?' he reads the shock on her face.  
  
He kisses her, hard, and presses the bag into her hands.  
  
'I'll see you again, soon.'  
  
'Jack!' she calls after him, as he runs out of her door, 'I love you!'  
  
He looks back over his shoulder and, on impulse, although he hasn't really thought about it, calls 'Likewise!'  
  
As he darts out of the front door, he cannons into the waiting soldier. He hears two gunshots and feels two dull aches in his right shoulder. Then, all is darkness. Maggie runs out of the door after him, and sees Jack lying on his back on the ground with blood pouring out of him. He is being hoisted up by two soldiers, who are taking him away.  
  
'No!' she screams, 'no! Bring him back!'  
  
Another soldier dashes forward and restrains her, but she falls back in a dead faint.  
  
----------  
  
She wakes up on her own bed in her own room. Scarlet is mopping her brow with a damp cloth.  
  
'What..?'  
  
'Lie still. Don't try to speak.'  
  
'But.Jack.'  
  
'Yes, Captain Sparrow has been taken, but you're safe and that's all that matters.'  
  
Tears begin to fall unbidden from Maggie's eyes. Scarlet's lips are thin; she knows that this girl cannot stay here. 'Maggie, you have to leave, you don't belong here, not while you're in love with him.'  
  
Maggie thinks of the bag of silver Jack left her, and says nothing.  
  
'Do you have anywhere to go?' Scarlet doesn't really care, but she needs to pretend that she does, for the sake of the girl.  
  
'My sister, in Port Royal.'  
  
'Good. As soon as you can go down to the docks, and see if you can find a ship to take you.'  
  
Maggie nods weakly, and slips back into unconsciousness.  
  
***  
  
What will happen to Jack? What will happen to Maggie? Will they ever see each other again? You'll find out, just as soon as I update again. In the meantime, review please! 


	4. That pirate?

Deeply disappointed about my lack of reviews but oh well never mind. I'll live to write another day. Again, thanks to Katrina, and yet again I don't own the movie yadda yadda yadda.  
  
*** A Hard Man To Predict  
  
When Maggie steps off the ship on the third morning since she left Tortuga, she can hardly believe her eyes. The town laid out in front of her is so civilised and clean and so. so not Tortuga.  
  
She thinks that maybe she should have sent a letter or something, to tell Susie that she was coming, but how could she ever have got a reply? She could never tell anyone where she had been, that she'd degraded herself so hugely, then fallen in love with the kind of man who would even visit a common prostitute. No, she decides, she won't tell anyone unless she really has to. Perhaps it would be better if no one knew she was even there at all, except Susie. Maybe she should tell Susie everything, just for the release of it, and to hell with the consequences. But first things first. She stops one of the sailors from the ship that brought her here.  
  
'Excuse me, but could you give me directions to the Governor's house?'  
  
He looks at her with an air of surprise. 'Why do you want to know?'  
  
There would be no harm in telling the truth, she thinks. 'My sister is a maid there. I'm going to visit her.'  
  
'Oh. Well, you see that big house up on that hill over there?' He points, and Maggie turns her head and sees a huge white house overlooking the entire town.  
  
'Thank you,' she says to him, and walks off towards the mansion.  
  
By the time she has picked her way through the crowded streets, and up the hill - it seemed so much smaller from the docks - it must be almost eleven o'clock, and Maggie is hot and tired from dragging her trunk all this way. She reaches the large imposing gates of the house, but walks around to the side where she finds a smaller gate with a sign by it, that says 'Service Entrance'.  
  
She hoists her trunk one final time, and heads down the path to the back of the house. She knocks three times on the door, and is rendered speechless when it is Susie herself who opens it.  
  
'Maggie! We thought you were lost!'  
  
'I was, but now I'm not.'  
  
'Oh, Miss Elizabeth will be so pleased to know you've come back' -  
  
'No!' Maggie almost shouts it. 'No, no one can know I'm here.'  
  
'Why?' Susie's face shows her sense of bewilderment. 'Just....because. Look, I'm tired, can I come in?'  
  
'Oh of course, what am I thinking of? I'll show you up to my room.'  
  
Carrying Maggie's trunk between them, they walk up the innumerable flights of stairs that lead to Susie's room. It is on the last but one floor of the house, with a beautiful view of the bay from the window.  
  
'The room across the hall was going to be yours, but since we thought you'd disappeared or run off.what happened to you?'  
  
Maggie sighs, and sits down heavily on Susie's bed. She didn't know how Susie would react, as she'd always tried to be protective of Maggie, seeing as how she was four years older. Ever since they had run away from home and their drunkard father and gone to work for the Swann family, Susie had taken care of Maggie. If she knew what had happened after the ship had been hit by that storm and stopped in Tortuga for repairs.  
  
'I missed the boat.'  
  
'You what?'  
  
'I missed the boat.' It strikes Maggie how ludicrous this is, and she bursts out laughing.  
  
'But where were you for the last two weeks? And how did you get here, you didn't have any money with you?'  
  
Maggie stops laughing. 'I.worked.'  
  
'Worked?' Susie is plainly confused. 'What work?'  
  
'I was.a.barmaid. I didn't have to work for long, the passage here didn't cost much.' She wasn't going to tell Susie about the money she had left - there were still about forty silver pieces from the money Jack had given her.  
  
'A barmaid? But.a bar in Tortuga.' Susie makes it plain that she thinks there is more to the story than Maggie is telling.  
  
'What about it?' Susie raises one eyebrow, and Maggie cracks.  
  
'Alright I was more than a barmaid.'  
  
'Oh Maggie.' Susie sits beside Maggie and puts her arms around her little sister. Maggie leans into Susie and cries out all the salt of the ocean between her and Jack through her eyes.  
  
'Do you want to talk about it?'  
  
Maggie shakes her head, and simply cries and cries, but then she feels like to tell someone everything and have the comfort of it would be the best thing for her. So she tells Susie everything, about Jack, how he bought her, how he left her, and how she fell in love with him. Susie listens, and feels her heart break as Maggie spills out the story.  
  
When Maggie is finished, she has stopped crying. She sits up and stares out of the window across the bay. 'You see I don't want anyone to know I'm here?'  
  
Susie nods. 'I'll do my best to keep you secret, but you can't stay hidden forever you know. What do you intend to do?'  
  
'I don't know. But I want to see him again.'  
  
'That pirate? You want to see that pirate?'  
  
'Yes.' Maggie can think of nothing but finding Jack, and the horrible suspicion that has been growing in her mind since he left her.  
  
***  
  
Cliff-hanger.wow I suck at cliff-hangers. But here we go, please review, it'll make my day. Maybe, unless something else really good happens. 


	5. Discovered

Thank you, you lovely people who reviewed my story, it really did make my day. Once more thank you Katrina, without you this story would be.well.non- existent. I don't own the film, the characters etc. etc.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
It is three months since Maggie left Tortuga, and in some ways she wishes she was still there. At least she didn't have to hide away like a fugitive. She has been forced to stay in Susie's room all day, and is only able come out at night. She helps Susie with as much of the mending as she can - she has to feel like she's pulling her weight. But, she thinks, if she had stayed in Tortuga, Scarlet might have sent her away anyway. The suspicion that had been in Maggie's mind when she arrived in Port Royal became an anxiety, a fear, and finally a certainty. Maggie is pregnant.  
  
Now more than ever she feels trapped, because how could she go out like this without a wedding ring on her finger? How could she stand the stares of the townspeople? Susie is the only person she has even spoken to in all this time, and she thinks it is strange that she misses people who are under the same roof as her. She wishes she could just speak to Miss Elizabeth, just once, before the baby is born and she has to leave and go - where? She can't stay here, that's for sure.  
  
It is lunchtime now, and Susie usually slips away from the kitchen to bring her some bread and cheese, and a jug of water. She listens, and lets the shirt she is mending fall from her fingers into her lap for a moment. She can hear footsteps coming up the hallway, and about time too - she's hungry. She stands up carefully on her tired feet, putting the embroidery down on the table next to her. She crosses the room, and opens the door to Susie, carrying the usual lunch tray.  
  
'Be quick, I have to get back.'  
  
'Alright, alright, calm down.'  
  
This is the sister's usual exchange, Susie is always in a hurry so Maggie always bolts down her lunch, but before she is halfway through, there are more footsteps, this time pounding along the corridor, and a voice calling Susie's name. The door bursts open before either sister can react, to reveal Elizabeth, red-faced and out of breath.  
  
'Susie'- she sees Maggie, and stops, confusion reigning in her mind. Maggie was lost on that island where the ship had to dock.  
  
Maggie gets up, and curtseys to her former employer, clearly showing her current condition. Elizabeth's shock is written all over her face. Susie steps smartly up to Elizabeth and pulls her inside, closing the door behind her.  
  
'Miss Elizabeth,' she begins 'now is not the time for awkward questions. Just accept that Maggie is here, and don't tell a soul about it.'  
  
'But she's.but you're.' Maggie forces a smile. 'Yes Miss Elizabeth, I am with child, but I beg you, please, don't let anyone know I'm here. Do you understand?'  
  
Elizabeth looks slightly insulted. 'Of course I understand. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, ever.'  
  
Maggie can't contain herself. She dashes forward and hugs Elizabeth tightly and to her surprise, the girl returns her embrace just as warmly.  
  
'Careful now', Susie breaks in, 'don't squash the little one.'  
  
Elizabeth and Maggie let go of each other, and Susie turns to Elizabeth and asks why she needed her in the first place.  
  
'Father wanted you to know that Lieutenant Norrington is coming to dinner, and he wants you to be in charge of preparations.'  
  
'Well why didn't he send one of the servants to tell me then? Surely you have more important things to do than worry about who's coming to dinner!'  
  
Elizabeth looks slightly guilty. 'I just wanted to see you. I haven't seen you in days. I miss you doing my hair and dressing me every morning.'  
  
Maggie smiles at this, as she returns to her mending. She tires so easily, now.  
  
'I only did that on board ship because there were no other women except Maggie and she had other chores to do. Now run along, and be polite to the Lieutenant.'  
  
Elizabeth sticks out her bottom lip, in a self-conscious parody of a childhood pout.  
  
'I don't like him. He looks at me in a funny way.'  
  
'Don't be ridiculous. Go and play with that little friend of yours at the smithy why don't you, but try not to get all dirty before your dinner guest arrives.'  
  
'Will is boring, he just goes on about swords all the time. I think he should have stayed here and never gone to be an apprentice at all.'  
  
Maggie looks up from her mending. 'Swords can come in useful my dear, one day you might need to know about them.'  
  
Susie gives Maggie a Look. 'Don't encourage her with those pirate ideas of hers.'  
  
A big grin splits Elizabeth's face. 'Oh I think it would be so exciting to meet a pirate!'  
  
Susie can't bear to look at Maggie as she suddenly becomes very absorbed in her mending.  
  
'I've read about them all you know. Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, Jack Sparrow'-  
  
Susie hears Maggie's sharp intake of breath at that last name, and stops Elizabeth before she can say any more.  
  
'Yes dear, go and tell your father I'll be happy to organise dinner for tonight, will you?'  
  
'Yes Susie, and then I think I'll go and see Will. Bye!'  
  
Elizabeth almost bounces out of the door, and down the corridor, her head full of pirates. Susie shuts the door quietly, and returns to her sister's side, where one again Maggie is staring out across the bay.  
  
'You never told me his name,' she says quietly.  
  
Maggie looks down at her hands, and remembers how Jack would hold them and kiss them when they were together.  
  
'His name was - is - Captain Jack Sparrow. This,' she says, running her hands over her stomach 'is his child.'  
  
*** Not such a cliff-hanger this time. Hope you enjoyed it, I promise I'll start on the next chapter soon! Please review - constructive criticism always welcomed (so is outright praise by the way, but I don't expect a lot of that)! 


	6. Utter fear

Disney! Hey, Disney! Can I have the rights if I give you a bar of chocolate? What's that? NO!? Hmph. Still don't own it. And thanks to Katrina again.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Autumn and winter in Port Royal come and go, with Maggie becoming ever more tired and ever more irritable. She remains undetected by the other inhabitants of the house, but she is tired of mending, and tired of her isolation. She takes to standing in front of the mirror, and staring at her reflection, with its dark gold hair, eyes that flash sometimes green sometimes grey, and at her swollen belly, just to prove to herself that she still exists. The dark circles under her eyes continue to grow as a result of many sleepless nights, thinking of him.  
  
Elizabeth comes to see her now, almost as much as Susie does. For a girl so young she is suspiciously sneaky. She brings food, water, and all the daily news of a ten-year- old, which Maggie finds herself listening to as eagerly as if she has never been outside at all. Susie tries her best to keep Maggie cheerful, but with an outlook so uncertain, it is rare that her sister ever smiles, except for Elizabeth, and it is Elizabeth who, one day in March, tells Maggie the best thing she has heard in many months.  
  
'The Lieutenant is taking Father to Kingston! Think of it! They'll both be gone for at least a month or so - isn't it wonderful? You'll be able to come out more - most of the servants are going with Father. Only the one of the under-butlers and Cook are staying, and I told Father I would look after everything.' She beams proudly, sitting bolt upright in her chair, opposite Maggie's chair by the window, like quite the young lady.  
  
Maggie grins from ear to ear, and she even feels the joyful kick of her small passenger. She could go outside, she could go for walks in the grounds, maybe even have some flowers to brighten up the room.  
  
'When are they leaving?' she asks, utterly helpless with anticipation.  
  
Elizabeth thinks for a moment. 'In a week or so. I suppose they have to pack up and things.'  
  
'How did you persuade your father to leave you behind?'  
  
Elizabeth smiles slyly, but says nothing.  
  
'Come on, tell me.'  
  
'I just cried and cried and said why didn't he trust me with the running of the house and how much it hurt my feelings.'  
  
'Miss Elizabeth!'  
  
Elizabeth looks momentarily shamefaced. 'It worked, didn't it? Now Susie and me can stay here with you.' 'Well, I'm not saying I approve of your methods, but maybe the ends do sometimes justify the means. What would I have done here without you?' In a month, the baby will be born, Maggie adds to herself.  
  
Elizabeth shrugs. 'I think it would be very lonely to be alone for a whole month.'  
  
'Ah, but you wouldn't be alone, would you? You could invite Will up to keep you company.'  
  
Elizabeth blushes.  
  
-------  
  
It takes every second of that week and a bit for the Governor's household to make ready to depart. The Lieutenant visits every day, and more and more Elizabeth seeks refuge with Maggie to get away from his terrible jokes and the rigours of packing. Susie gets up in the morning before Maggie is awake, and gets back to her room after Maggie is asleep, so it is Elizabeth who brings Maggie food and gossip and yet more mending to be done.  
  
On the morning of the exodus from Port Royal, Maggie is woken before dawn by the sound of carriage wheels on the driveway outside. She goes to her window, and peers out through the slats in the shutters, careful not to be seen by anyone who might be watching.  
  
There are so many carriages and men on horseback leaving, with so many trunks, that it looks as if they have simply gutted the house and taken all the furniture with them. She looks down through the darkness, and sees the Governor and a very sleepy Elizabeth come out of the front door many floors below her, and exchange a brief goodbye. The Lieutenant follows them out, briefly says something to the Governor, then turns and kisses Elizabeth's hand. As soon as their backs are turned, Elizabeth yawns hugely, and goes back into the house.  
  
Maggie is cold standing by the window, and her feet hurt. She goes back to bed to enjoy a few more hours of sleep.  
  
When she wakes up again, the sunlight is streaming in through the open window, and Elizabeth is sitting in her customary chair, watching a ship coming in across the bay. She is thinking how wonderful it would be to have a ship, to be able to go wherever she wanted, to be free.  
  
Maggie crawls out of bed, and goes to stand by Elizabeth, but is stopped by a strange sensation, a dampness creeping down her legs. She looks down in shock to se her nightdress stained, and she feels like she is being kicked very hard from inside, but it is not a kick, and it hurts. She breathes in sharply. Elizabeth looks up, her eyes wide with shock. Maggie stumbles backwards, and sits down heavily on the bed.  
  
Fear, utter fear takes over Maggie's entire being, but she tries to keep her voice level. 'Get Susie,' she tells Elizabeth. 'It's starting.'  
  
***  
  
Drama! Tension! Please review for me, and then tune in for another exciting episode. 


	7. A daughter

Here we go, Chapter 7. Thanks again for all the nice reviews; they always make me smile a lot. Disney are mean and won't give me the rights so I am still pirate-less, and as always much gratitude to Katrina.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Maggie has lost all sense of time. She has been staring at the same crack in the ceiling for what feels like hours, but it could be minutes. She is barely even thinking anymore, only feeling the dull pains.  
  
Susie is getting very worried - her sister has been laid out for almost twenty hours now, and nothing has happened. At first she had been reluctant to allow Elizabeth into the room, but she was insistent as only she could be, and Maggie seemed to feel calmer with Elizabeth holding her hand. Elizabeth had fetched hot water, now stone cold, and a pile of towels that are still on the chair by the window. Maggie hasn't slept, hasn't eaten, and is becoming paler and paler and the night draws on. Susie finally decides that this cannot continue. She whispers to Elizabeth, who is sat on the other side of the bed holding a cool damp rag to Maggie's forehead.  
  
'Listen, this has gone on far too long. I need you to fetch the midwife. Do you know her?'  
  
Elizabeth shakes her head. Of course she doesn't, Susie reminds herself. Why would she?  
  
'Alright then, you know how to get to the book shop?'  
  
'Yes'.  
  
'Well if you turn down the alley, you come to a small house with a green door. That's her house - her name is Mrs Coleridge.'  
  
Elizabeth stands up to go, handing the damp rag to Susie. 'What do I tell her?'  
  
Susie thinks for a moment. 'Tell her one of the servants at the Governor's house needs her - she doesn't need to know anymore.'  
  
'Susie, it's dark out, do you think I should take someone with me?'  
  
'Persuade Cook to go with you, she wouldn't care if you told her, she'd forget about it anyway.'  
  
Elizabeth hurries out of the door, and down the dark hallway. Susie sits, with the rag pressed against her sister's feverish forehead. Maggie can see the outline of Susie's face in the candlelight, and she can see the tears that are welling up in her eyes.  
  
'Susie.' Maggie licks her dry lips, and raises her head a little from the pillow.  
  
Susie leans forward, trying to hear her sister's feeble murmur. 'Yes, yes what is it? Can I get you something?'  
  
'Susie.if it isn't all alright.'  
  
'It will be, Elizabeth has gone for the midwife, everything will be fine.'  
  
'If it isn't all alright.take care of the child, tell my son, my daughter.when they are old enough to understand.tell them everything. Tell them about Jack.tell them I loved him.'  
  
Susie can no longer hold in the tears now, and she lets them role down her cheeks. Maggie sees them, and reaches up a hand to wipe them away, but only succeeds on smearing them further across Susie's cheeks.  
  
'Please don't cry, there's nothing to be sad about.'  
  
Susie takes hold of her sister's hand and squeezes it. She lets go, and goes to put the rag into the water again to cool it down. Just as she sits down again, the first yell of agony tears from Maggie's lips.  
  
-------  
  
Half an hour passes, with Maggie gripping Susie's hand and screaming with the hell of it, before Elizabeth and the midwife arrive. Elizabeth returns to her position at Maggie's side, with her hand being crushed with every fresh pain. The midwife bends over Maggie, and runs a gnarled old hand across her swollen abdomen several times. She addresses her remarks to Susie, when she finally speaks.  
  
'The child hasn't turned, but there really isn't anything I can do about that.' She takes Susie by the elbow, and gently moves her out of Maggie and Elizabeth's earshot.  
  
'Is it bad?' Susie asks.  
  
Mrs Coleridge nods gravely. 'I'm sorry miss, but it doesn't look good. She's been abed a long time hasn't she? Probably with no food or sleep.am I right?'  
  
'Yes.' Susie starts to cry softly again.  
  
The midwife pats her on the shoulder. 'I'll say a prayer for her.'  
  
Susie wipes the tears away with the flat of her hand. 'How much do I owe you?'  
  
'For a case like this? Not a penny.'  
  
She shuffles away, out of the door, and back out into the night.  
  
The next few hours until dawn are the longest Susie has ever had to live through. She can feel Maggie's life slipping away and there is nothing she can do. Elizabeth stays by Maggie, holding her hand and placidly letting her own be squashed with the rhythm of the pain. She watches Maggie's eyes roam the room frantically, almost rolling in her head with desperation. And then the squeezes change and become one long drawn out clench. Elizabeth shouts to Maggie, who is returning from re-filling the hot water bowl.  
  
'I think its coming!'  
  
Susie dashes over, and watches, half joyous, half horrified, as her niece is born feet first on a river of black blood. She grabs the knife she has kept for this moment, and cuts the cord that ties Maggie to this already dark-eyed child. She scoops the baby up, and wraps the bloodied infant in a towel, and holds her where Maggie can see, while Elizabeth collapses exhausted into a chair, nursing her hand.  
  
'Look, Maggie, you have a daughter.'  
  
Maggie smiles faintly, and reaches out to stroke the baby's jet black tuft of hair.  
  
'Thank you,' she says.  
  
Susie doesn't know who she is thanking, God perhaps, but as Maggie is looking at the girl that she bore, the light in her eyes, that glimmer that Jack fell in love with, sparks, and goes out. She sees no more.  
  
***  
  
I'm so sorry, but it has to be done. I beg forgiveness from all of you who read this, but trust me. This is not the end. This is only the beginning. 


	8. Lost forever

See! I told you it wasn't the end! Have a little faith and stick with me.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
At the same moment that Maggie is stood by her window feeling the strange sensation in her body, Jack is standing at the helm of his newly commandeered ship, carefully bringing it into Tortuga. It is almost nine months since he was last here, since he met her.  
  
He's spent most of those months languishing in prison while the redcoats decided whether or not to hang him, and thinking of her, the only one he's ever loved. But some quick work with a dinner knife on the day they were stupid enough to give him one soon saw his way out of that dingy cell, and now, here he is, back to find her.  
  
The first place he goes to, as soon as the ship has been successfully docked, is Scarlet's. Dawn over Tortuga is never a pretty sight, and he's glad to get out of the foul-smelling street. No one is up inside the brothel, but Jack has been here enough times to know where the lady of the house's room is.  
  
He doesn't bother to knock on the door, but simply walks in. There's some man in bed with Scarlet, but he doesn't care. He pulls the covers off them both with one hand, raising his pistol with the other. The man yells, and begins to swear, but when he sees who is on the other end of the pistol, he quietly gathers up his clothes and scrapes out into the hallway wearing nothing but a sheepish look. A sardonic smile plays around Jack's lips. Scarlet pulls the covers out of Jack's hand and up to her chin in the interests of modesty, her face white with fury.  
  
'What do you think you are doing?'  
  
'I've got a few questions for you, love.'  
  
'What right do you have to burst in here like this' -  
  
'No,' he says, levelling the pistol at her 'we are going to 'ave a civilised discussion, or I am going to shoot you. Savvy?'  
  
Scarlet nods, her lips thin, Angry though she is, she knows Jack, and she knows not to push her luck.  
  
'Now then,' Jack begins 'almost a year ago you had a girl 'ere by the name of Maggie. I gave you fifty gold pieces to keep 'er all to meself for a week, and I want to know where she is.'  
  
'How should I know?'  
  
'Because you make it your business to know things.'  
  
'Why should I tell you? Last time you were here you lost me one of my best customers by threatening to shoot him in the head, and then you lost me a girl who could have made me a very rich woman by making her get all loved up over you.'  
  
'Ah. So you sent 'er away then?'  
  
Scarlet curses under her breath.  
  
'Alright. She's gone. She said something about a sister somewhere.'  
  
'Where?'  
  
'I don't know! I can't remember all these things. You'd be better off looking around the other houses for her.'  
  
Jack smiles derisively. 'Thank you so much for your time.'  
  
As he leaves, he sees no sign of the man who he threw out of Scarlet's room, like the trash he undoubtedly was. Good riddance, he thinks. As he walks down the corridor, he comes to the room that was Maggie's. He listens at the door for a minute, then opens it and goes in.  
  
The room is empty, and smells as if it has been shut up for a long time. Maybe Scarlet never found a replacement for Maggie. The bed is made, and he remembers the nights he spent in it with her. Some of the best nights of his life. He sits down heavily on the edge of the bed, and puts his head in his hands. He listens to the sounds of the waves on the shore and the moans of those who drank too much the night before.  
  
He sits for what feels like an age, before mentally shaking himself, and hauling himself to his feet. The great Captain Jack Sparrow, pining like a boy. But still, he wonders where she is now, at this very moment. He hopes she isn't working in one of the other 'houses' as Scarlet calls them. To think of her with another man makes him sick with jealousy. He knows in his heart that if she isn't in Tortuga, he will never find her, because how can he search the entire ocean for one woman? But Tortuga, Tortuga he can do.  
  
-----  
  
Like Maggie, although he doesn't know it, he hasn't slept and hasn't eaten. He has bought many people drinks, flirted with many whores, and threatened several bar tenders. No one has seen her, no one knows anything, and she isn't working in any of the brothels in the whole of Tortuga. He goes back to his ship, to his private stash of good quality rum - it's no solution, and he'll feel worse in the morning, but at least he'll be numb until then.  
  
On the empty ship, as the crew have gone whoring, drinking and thieving most likely, Jack sits in his cabin with a bottle in his hand, but he can't drink. It tastes strange in his mouth, sour somehow. He can feel the ship sway gently with the swell, and knows that this is going to be a long night. He thinks of Maggie and his time with her. He wonders if she's respectable now, and if anyone knows about her days in Tortuga. He remembers and remembers until he is sick with it, he thinks about every aspect of her until even the sea seems to be calling her name to him, taunting him.  
  
He tries to sleep, but sleep will not come. He goes outside and stands at the helm again, and watches a second dawn come up on the town - how could a whole night pass and him barely notice? At the moment when the only woman he ever loved gives up her life for his child, Jack finally accepts that he will never lay eyes on her again.  
  
***  
  
Everyone stop crying! *hands out Kleenex* I promise you a happy ending, but it might be a little while in coming. Please review, and tell me what you think. 


	9. Can we keep her?

A long awaited happy bit. Sorry for the depressing-ness of the last two chapters, but it couldn't be any other way.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Elizabeth stands in front of the doors to her father's study, holding the tiny child in her arms. She is asleep now, her startling brown eyes closed. She knows it's unusual for a child to have brown eyes, she hopes for the child's sake that it's lucky.  
  
'Come in!' her father intones from inside.  
  
She takes a deep breath, and carefully pushes the door open with her elbow. Her father, the Governor, looks up. When he sees the child his eyebrows go up.  
  
'What are you doing with that baby?'  
  
Elizabeth tries to remember the carefully crafted story that she has put together to account for the child's presence. She hasn't told Susie because Susie has been almost a hollow shell of a person since the day of Maggie's small, unceremonious, funeral.  
  
'While you were away, someone left her on the doorstep. I want to keep her.'  
  
'Keep it?' he laughs. 'Don't be ridiculous Elizabeth. I'm sure we can find a good family to take her in.'  
  
He stops as he sees Elizabeth's lower lip beginning to tremble. Elizabeth hangs her head, and tries frantically to call up the essential tears.  
  
'But.but.' she sobs.  
  
The Governor's face softens slightly. 'But who would look after it?'  
  
Elizabeth scents victory. 'Susie and I have been caring for her since she was left, why can't we just carry on?'  
  
'I don't want the child interfering with any of Susie's duties, or any of your studies.'  
  
'Oh she won't, she's very good, and mostly she just sleeps. Look.'  
  
Elizabeth carries the precious bundle over to her father so he can see. She reasons that no one could fail to be touched by the sight of a sleeping child, and she is right. The Governor smiles.  
  
'Well, I suppose it wouldn't do any harm.does she have a name?'  
  
Elizabeth thinks. How could they have forgotten to give the girl a name? She shifts her gaze down to the sleeping face, and remembers the stories about fairies she used to read as a little girl. The pictures looked just like the child she now is now holding.  
  
'Faye' she tells her father.  
  
'It's a beautiful name,' he says.  
  
'Father, can we have her christened, do you think?'  
  
'Well naturally. Anything you like. I have some important business to attend to, so run along now.'  
  
Elizabeth smiles, and gracefully walks out, trying not to wake the newly- named Faye. She stops a maid who is passing, and asks where Susie might be now.  
  
'In the kitchen miss, shall I get her for you?'  
  
'Yes, please. I shall wait here.'  
  
Elizabeth sits on one of the chairs in the hall, with Faye on her lap. Susie is not long in coming, despite her slow walk.  
  
'You asked for me, Miss Elizabeth?'  
  
'Oh Susie, it's wonderful! Father says we can keep Faye!'  
  
'Who's Faye?' Susie is confused, and feels muddle-headed as if she is looking at the world through a fog.  
  
Elizabeth indicates the sleeping mass she is gently embracing.  
  
'I named her.'  
  
Susie goes over to Elizabeth, and gently picks Faye up. As she watches, Faye stirs and opens her eyes. Susie looks down at her, and Faye looks back.  
  
'Such dark eyes.' Susie whispers, almost to herself.  
  
'She doesn't look like Maggie, does she?' Elizabeth says, appearing at Susie's shoulder.  
  
'No, she must take after her father.'  
  
'Susie, who is her father?'  
  
'I.I don't know.'  
  
'Oh.' Elizabeth falls silent. 'Well, it doesn't matter now, does it? She's ours, no one else's.'  
  
As she looks into the eyes of her niece, Susie is woken out of her grief. She knows that she holds in her arms something infinitely valuable and precious, something to be treasured and adored.  
  
'Do we have any toys for her?' Elizabeth asks, breaking into Susie's reverie.  
  
'I don't know. I have to go back to the kitchen soon, why don't you see what you can find.'  
  
'Alright.'  
  
Elizabeth takes Faye from Susie, and begins the long journey up to the servants' quarters and Maggie's room, which will become Faye's room. When she gets there, slightly out of breath, she sets Faye down in her cradle ever so gently, and casts her eye about the room.  
  
She sees nothing that would interest a child, what she really needs is something distinctive, something that she can cherish as a memory of the mother she will never know. Her eyes light on the ornament on Maggie's bedside table. She is curious, so she goes to examine it. It is a bird of some kind, of dark wood, with one of its elaborate tail feathers broken off. Hardly suitable as a toy for a baby, but as a token, a memory made solid...  
  
Elizabeth puts it on the window sill where Faye will be able to see it if she wakes up, but where it won't fall or be damaged. She decides to take some of her hard saved silver and go to the market with Susie to get Faye some real toys. She won't be long, and she will get one of the maids to keep an eye on the child.  
  
As she leaves, and closes the door behind her, Faye wakes up. She doesn't cry, she barely even moves, but her dark dark eyes light on the phoenix on the window sill. Those eyes, that did not come from her mother.  
  
***  
  
Faye.pretty name. Anyway, I hope everyone feels a little cheered after the sadness before. Next chapter coming soon, and maybe even more Jack! 


	10. Seven years

Much gratitude to Katrina for helping me out again, I got a bad case of writer's block with this one and had to go and watch POTC again for some inspiration. A writer's life is so hard...  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Seven years have passed in Port Royal, and not much has happened, except that Elizabeth has grown up, and Faye has just grown. Faye has been brought up by her aunt Susie, who hardly ever has any time for her, and Elizabeth, who as little more than a child herself was perhaps not the best role model.  
  
Faye is considered to be wild and rather savage by the rest of the household, but is treated with the same deference as the master's pet. She has spent the last four years sitting in on Elizabeth's lessons with her tutors, and has proved herself to be rather intelligent. However, she has picked up some of Elizabeth's foibles, her pirate obsession being one of them.  
  
Faye has acquired many things is the last seven years, including her own personal treasure trove of books. Her favourite is naturally one called 'Legendary Pirates'. Elizabeth gave it to her before she could read, when she could only look at the pictures. She likes the one with the man with the long unruly dark hair like hers, and deep brown eyes like hers, because he is the only one who actually looks out of his own picture. One of the first things she could read was the name of this man, written under his picture: Captain Jack Sparrow. She was a little let down, she thought he would be called something more exotic.  
  
Once, she tied a red scarf of Susie's around her head the way the Captain was wearing one. She had held up the book next to her face and looked in the mirror, and compared herself to him. She was pleased with the overall effect, and now she sleeps with the red scarf under her pillow, and wears it whenever she thinks she can get away with it. This is often, as she has a strange gift of seeming to make herself invisible, so no one notices her.  
  
Apart from the scarf, her other favourite thing is her wooden bird with the broken tail. She's had it since she was small, and her aunt Susie told her it belonged to her mother. Sometimes she wonders how it got broken. Faye felt sad when she knew that her mother had died having her, like it was her fault. But Susie told her not to be so silly, so Faye decided that maybe it means that her mother must have loved her very much to sacrifice herself. Elizabeth has a father, and Faye must always curtsey to him in the hallway, but Faye has no father, and no one has ever said anything about him, if he existed.  
  
This morning is like any other morning. Faye wakes up as the first light of dawn slides in through the shutters as she always does. She likes the early morning, because the house is hers and hers alone for a while, and she can do what she likes.  
  
Faye washes in the basin on her dresser, and puts on her black dress. She refused to wear Elizabeth's old clothes, even when Elizabeth wanted her to, because they just looked so wrong on her somehow. Susie says that black is much more fitting for a future maid anyway. Faye, however, has no intention of being a maid.  
  
Faye pulls the red scarf out from under her pillow, and examines herself in the mirror before tying it on over her disordered black hair. She turns one way and then the other, and decides that yes, this will do. She is not a vain child, but she likes to look in the mirror every so often, just to make sure she's still there. People look through her so often. Except Miss Elizabeth of course, never Miss Elizabeth. Faye picks up her wooden bird from her bed, pulling up the covers as she does so. She goes out, past her aunt's room, and down the corridor to enjoy her hour or so's freedom.  
  
----  
  
A handful of hours later, Faye is sitting on the main landing, just out of sight of the entrance hall below, dangling her feet through the gaps in the bars. She has her wooden bird in one hand, and is leaning on one of the bars with the other. She is watching with interest as the blacksmith's apprentice is waiting to see the Governor.  
  
His name is Will, and Faye likes him because he is in love with Miss Elizabeth, and once told her how good she looked with her red scarf on her head. Miss Elizabeth doesn't know he loves her, he has never said so, but Faye has spent most of her life watching people, and has become very knowledgeable about human nature. She can tell.  
  
Will examines a candelabrum on the wall. Faye cringes as he breaks one of the branches off, and hides it in the pot directly underneath. Hendon, a snooty under-butler that Faye dislikes passes, and ignores Will's greeting. Hendon looks so ridiculously pompous that it is all Faye can do not to laugh.  
  
The Governor comes out to meet Will, and Will presents him with a sword. Faye doesn't quite understand why, she is too far away to really hear much, but when she catches a reference to Norrington, the man in the funny hat, she remembers that today there is some kind of ceremony for him at the fort, and Faye was supposed to be helping Miss Elizabeth to dress. Just as she is thinking these thoughts, she feels a tap on her shoulder. She retracts her legs and spins around, and sees Miss Elizabeth standing above her, looking stern.  
  
'Where were you this morning?'  
  
Faye doesn't know what to say. 'I.'  
  
Miss Elizabeth's face splits into the girlish grin that Faye knows so well.  
  
'I'm just joking! Don't look so worried, I don't mind.'  
  
Faye sags with relief.  
  
'Is Will down there?'  
  
Faye nods, and watches as Miss Elizabeth's eyes light up a little. Ah, she thinks, she loves him too.  
  
Miss Elizabeth kisses Faye on top of her red scarf, and tells her to be good. 'I know you won't be,' Miss Elizabeth adds with look of mock sadness, 'but I think I'd better tell you just the same.'  
  
Miss Elizabeth straightens up, and walks sedately down the stairs, hurrying a little as she reaches the bottom, just to talk to Will. Faye hopes they will get married and be very happy, as Faye thinks that a story is not worth either the reading or the living if it doesn't have a happy ending.  
  
Faye gets up, picks up the bird, and goes down to the kitchen, as she has to help with lunch preparations every other day to prove her usefulness. Susie is already there, looking slightly harassed.  
  
'Why are you late?'  
  
'I was talking with Miss Elizabeth. She's in love with Will Turner you know.'  
  
Susie is used to Faye blurting out these revelations about people, but she also knows how uncannily accurate Faye usually is.  
  
'Well well well...' she says, like she is thinking aloud. She is silent for a moment, before recollecting herself. 'Faye, don't just stand there, get on with cutting up the bread.'  
  
'Yes Susie,' Faye answers obediently; despite the fact that right now, she really wishes she could have gone to the fort to see the ceremony. It would have been much more fun than making lunch, that's for sure.  
  
***  
  
Baby Faye, all grown up. Sort of. And isn't it odd that she looks like her favourite pirate...Stay tuned!  
  
It's a pirate's life 4 me: The idea is that the Governor can't say no to Elizabeth, and is a fundamentally nice guy anyway, but yeah, I see your point. 


	11. The cells

I'm so pleases that nobody has sent me death threats since I killed Maggie. I felt so evil, but it had to be done. This time I would like to thank my helpful proof reader and critic Sarah, who tells me when I've messed up. Thanks Sarah, and Katrina, who got me through YET ANOTHER bout of writing- related panic, and Henry, for helping with naming.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
At twelve o'clock, just as Faye is grudgingly putting the final touches to lunch under Susie's watchful eye, she hears raised voices coming from the far away entrance hall. Before Susie can stop her, she downs her knife and hurries to see what's going on. Racing down the passages, with the voices growing clearer with every step, she can recognise them. Miss Elizabeth, the Governor, and Norrington - the funny hat man. She stops at the door that leads from the storerooms and kitchen up to the entrance hall, and listens. She sees nothing bad in this - people must expect to be overheard if they shout that loudly.  
  
'Elizabeth, please, go and rest, recover your strength...'  
  
'Father, I do not need to rest and recover my strength! I want to know how that man got into Port Royal in the first place!'  
  
'Elizabeth, please calm down...have a little propriety...'  
  
'I'm sure the Commodore can appreciate how I'm feeling.'  
  
'Certainly, but please don't worry we have already apprehended the man and have him in the cells at this very moment. Tomorrow morning there will be no more Jack Sparrow to worry about.'  
  
Faye gasps. Jack Sparrow, here in Port Royal! She hears Miss Elizabeth's last aggravated shout of perhaps the Commodore needs to employ some guards at the port who actually know what a pirate looks like, but then decides that she has heard all she needs to. She turns, and heads back to the kitchens to make her excuses to Susie before heading off to the cells.  
  
Susie, unfortunately, is not so easy to talk round. She is cross that Faye simply ran out without finishing lunch and begins to lecture her, but she is not so cross that she is not distracted by the arrival of Stannard, the footman, who has been paying her attentions for some time. Faye graces him with a smile, before sneaking away up to her room.  
  
Once there, she stops briefly to straighten the red scarf on her head, and to pick up 'Legendary Pirates.' There might be two pirates with the same name; she wants to make sure that this is the right one. She slips back down the stairs again, and leaves through the servants' entrance. She scurries down the hill, through the winding streets, and into the centre of Port Royal. Nobody notices the small dark girl, scuttling along, eyes wide, carrying a thick heavy book under her arm. The cells up by the fort prove to be a little more of a problem; there are guards. She considers the situation for a moment. She notices a woman walking down the street, carrying a barrel of apples. She is young and pretty, and the guards are already watching her. Faye sidles closer and closer to the door to the cells, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. At the exact moment the woman passes, and both the guards have their attention firmly elsewhere, Faye ducks behind them, and slips down into the dank dungeon.  
  
Faye smiles to herself as she descends the steps; she hadn't thought it would be this easy. There isn't much light in the prison, but there is enough for Faye to see that of the handful of cells, only two are occupied. One by a large fat man who is snoring quietly, and one by.someone else.  
  
The someone else is the man Faye is looking for. He is standing by the window, looking down onto the harbour. He hasn't noticed that he is being watched. However, as soon as Faye, standing as she is in the shadow of a handy wall, takes out her book and opens it at the page with Jack Sparrow on it, he is alert and scanning the room for the intruder. His eyes pass right over the spot where Faye is standing. She looks at the picture, and at the man, at the picture again, then once more at the man. She decides that the picture doesn't do him justice.  
  
She takes a deep breath, snaps the book shut, and steps out of the shadow. When the man sees that the intruder is just a girl, he smiles, flashing a mouth half full of gold teeth. Faye smiles back, even though she doesn't intend to.  
  
'And what might you be doin' 'ere young miss?' he asks, coming up to the bars.  
  
His voice isn't threatening, just curious and not a little amused. Faye walks forwards until she is just a pace away from him, with the bars in between. She opens the book on the relevant page, and hands it to him carefully, turning it sideways to fit through the gap. Jack takes it over to the window to examine. When he realises that it is himself, he laughs out loud.  
  
'So you wanted to see the pirate, did you?'  
  
Faye nods. Jack comes back over to her and hands her the book through the bars.  
  
'I suppose that's why you've got the...' he tugs at his red bandanna.  
  
Faye nods again. A quizzical look comes over Jack's face.  
  
'It suits you my dear. Do you speak at all?'  
  
'Yes.'  
  
'Do you 'ave a name?'  
  
'Yes. But I'm not going to tell it to you.'  
  
'And why not? You know my name, and it doesn't seem fair that I don't know yours.'  
  
'Unfair is only unfair when it's unfair to me.'  
  
Jack laughs uproariously at this.  
  
'You'll make a fine pirate someday, thinking like that love.' Jack sits down on the floor just behind the bars, so now he is looking up at Faye. 'But tell me, 'ow did you manage to get down 'ere, past the guards?'  
  
Faye feels rather ridiculous standing up, so she sits down as well, even though the floor is foul and dirty. She tells Jack about the woman with the apples, and as she does Jack watches her, and listens to the way she talks and watches the way she gestures. She looks so familiar; he can't think where he's seen her before. When she stops talking, Jack has to admit to himself that he is impressed by her cunning. Faye is simply impressed that Jack Sparrow is listening to her.  
  
A silence falls over them at the end of Faye's explanation, before Jack speaks.  
  
'Where did you spring from, anyway? Won't your mother be worried about you?'  
  
'I live.I'm a maid in a big house. Sort of. My mother died when I was born.'  
  
'That's too bad love. No family at all?'  
  
'My aunt is a maid at the house too.'  
  
'Ah. Not so bad then. Still, don't maids actually 'ave to work and not go slinking about to meet pirates?'  
  
Faye shrugs. 'Being a maid is boring. I wish I could come with you when you get out of here.'  
  
'Why do you think I'll get out of 'ere? They're going to stretch my neck in the morning.'  
  
Faye shrugs again. 'No they won't. You're Captain Jack Sparrow.'  
  
Jack grins again, with the dirty sunlight glinting off his teeth.  
  
'You're absolutely right, love. Your faith in me is..touching.'  
  
Faye gets up. She wants to get back before anyone notices she's gone and she has to lie about where she's been, as she doesn't like lying much even though she has a talent for it.  
  
'I'm going home now. If you ever end up in Port Royal again, I'll come and see you and you can tell me things.'  
  
'What things? And how will you know if I ever come back?'  
  
'Lots of things. Just remember everything that happens between now and then.' She thinks of the Commodore, and adds 'I'm sure I'll find out if you're anywhere around.'  
  
'But what if I never come back 'ere again? I certainly don't intend to.'  
  
'Then we shall have to meet somewhere else. Goodbye Captain.' Faye holds out her hand solemnly. Jack kneels up, takes her hand, and shakes it seriously.  
  
'Pleasure meeting you miss.'  
  
Jack sinks back to the floor, watching her go. He wonders why that girl was so familiar.  
  
Faye hurries back to the Governor's house, hoping against hope that she hasn't been missed. The guards are no trouble this time; they're half asleep with the afternoon heat. Faye feels very satisfied - she has weighed her hero in the balance and, to her mind, he has not been found wanting.  
  
***  
  
Good? Bad? Believable? Unbelievable? Please review! I promise to update soon. 


	12. Up in flames

Still more nice reviews - all you people are so lovely. Thanks as always to my 'creative director' ha ha ha, my proof reader, and ginger Sarah for making fun of me. She wanted to be credited for something, so here it is.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Faye has not been missed. She sneaks up to her room, and lays on her bed thinking about her visit to the cells until tea time, when she sits with all the other servants in the servants' dining hall, and watches Susie flirting with Stannard. Maybe they'll get married too, and she'll have an uncle.  
  
The servants eat late, after the Governor and Miss Elizabeth, so Faye generally goes to bed straight afterwards. It's the only thing Susie is strict about, and Faye really doesn't mind. By the light of her solitary candle, she washes her face and hands in the freshly filled jug and basin on her dresser, and puts on her nightdress. She takes her scarf off her head, settles down under the covers, and blows out the candle. She lays in the dark, thinking about Jack, down in the cells. She closes her eyes and tries to sleep, but she can't, so she just lies there, waiting for slumber to overtake her.  
  
Faye doesn't understand why she can't sleep. She assumes it's because her brain is buzzing, but when she reaches out under the covers for her wooden bird, she realises it's not there, and that's why she can't sleep. She panics for a moment, thinking that she's lost it, but then she remembers leaving it in the kitchen, before she went to the cells. She sighs, exasperated. She doesn't want to get out of her nice warm bed to go and get it, but she knows she won't sleep without it.  
  
In the darkness, she gets out of bed, and fumbles around on her bedside table until she finds her tinderbox, and carefully, she relights her candle. She puts on her dress again, and ties her scarf back around her head. Taking her candle, she opens the door and listens for the sounds of anyone moving about, but hears nothing. Odd, she muses. It must be later than I thought.  
  
Silently, Faye creeps along the hallway, and down the many stairs to the servants' passage that has a door through to the kitchen, with her candle flickering wildly and casting strange shadows on the walls. She gently turns the handle of the door to the kitchen, and eases it open. Holding her candle high above her head, she scans the room for her bird. She sees it, half hidden by an upturned breadbasket. As she grasps it and pulls it away, she hears a loud thump that seems to echo through the entire house. Another one comes, and then another. What is it? She can make out something else too; just on the edge of hearing.....it sounds like..screams?  
  
She scurries down the passageway again, passing by the storerooms this time, running noiselessly up past the door that connects the passage to the entrance hall. As she dashes past, there are three very loud knocks at the main door. Quickly, she runs up to the passageway door and eases it open just a crack, so she can see out of it without being seen. She sees Hendon going to answer the main door, and hears Miss Elizabeth shouting a terrified 'Don't!' at the top of her voice.  
  
It is too late. Hendon opens the door, and on there other side is a filthy rabble of men, with the leader levelling a pistol straight into Hendon's face.  
  
'Hello, chum,' he says, and fires.  
  
Faye jumps back in horror, feeling the bile rise in her throat. Miss Elizabeth screams, and Faye listens to the pounding of her feet as she makes for the upper stories. The men surge through the doorway, the leader and another one following Miss Elizabeth, the others making their way through to the main rooms, presumably to steal anything they can lay their hands on.  
  
Faye has never been so terrified in all her life. She thinks of nothing but the desire to survive. She feels tears of panic running down her cheeks as she sprints away down the passage. A tiny germ of logic in her fear-filled brain tells her to get out of the house and into the open, where there is a greater chance of escape. She is wearing black, and in the dark grounds of the house she is unlikely to be seen. The main servants' entrance is too exposed for her to leave from safely, how can she get out?  
  
She thinks of the window in the large storeroom. It's high up in the wall, and not very big, but surely she could climb up the shelves and squeeze through. The door isn't far from where she is now, and she speeds up with the comfort of escape at the forefront of her mind. It has been left open, and Faye darts through it, trying to block out the yells of those in the house and the shouts of their attackers. She slams the door behind her, praying that the noise has gone unnoticed.  
  
It is dark in the storeroom, and her candle has gone out, but dimly she can just see the outline of the window. By touch alone, she walks over to it, and begins the climb up the shelves towards her goal. It is difficult, without dropping the bird, but she manages it, and standing on the top shelf she eases the window open. As she looks out, she realises two things. The first is that it is a long way down to the ground, and the second is that for a few moments until she can reach the trees on one side of the vast garden, she will be open to the view of anyone who looks out of one of the back windows. She has come this far, and she has no other choice.  
  
She hauls herself up onto the window ledge, shuts her eyes, and pushes herself through. The jolt as she hits the flowerbed below is more painful than she had thought it would be, and now half of her is caked in mud. Quickly, she presses herself against the wall of the house, and looks up. She can't see anyone, but then for her to be able to they would have to have their head stuck out of the window itself.  
  
Faye takes a deep breath, thinks to herself that Captain Jack Sparrow wouldn't be afraid, and runs up the gentle sloping ground to the trees. Every breath she takes she expects to be her last; she expects to hear shouts and feel shots ripping through her. But she doesn't, and when she reaches the trees, she drops to her knees with relief; her breath coming is great gasps.  
  
When she gets her breathing under control again, she gets to her feet. She is safe, standing as she is in the black shadow of the largest tree. She finds herself looking down on the house, courtesy of the uphill slope. Faye stares in horror at the burning town below, and further down, in the bay, she can see a ship. It is almost a blur, but the shape can be seen by the light of the fire that is now Port Royal. It is this ship, she realises, that has caused the devastation - it has still not stopped its bombardment of the town. This ship, she realises, must be a pirate ship. Those evil men who killed Hendon were pirates. Faye is horror struck, although she sees now that what else could they be?  
  
Faye's idyllic vision of the wandering loveable rogue pirate is shattered. Somewhere in that devastation are the people she loves, in her way, and they might even now be dying or dead. At this moment, as her childhood world is laying in pieces, her body can't take the strain. Faye falls forward in a dead faint, and knows no more of the night.  
  
***  
  
This was a hard chapter to write, seeing as how I didn't know what was going to happen. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think! 


	13. Where did you get that?

I realised I haven't said it in a while, so therefore: I don't own Pirates etc etc etc..Thanks to all my usual people who are still wonderful and thanks to all my lovely reviewers who are also wonderful!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
It is not until the morning that Faye is found. On of the under-gardeners sees her, still clutching her carved bird, underneath the large oak tree. He takes her up to her room, getting one of the other maids to fetch Susie, who has been frantic since she found out that Miss Elizabeth had been taken by the pirates.  
  
Faye spends the next few weeks raving and delirious with fever, brought on by sleeping out in the open on the damp ground. Susie stays by her side every moment, terrified that she will lose her niece as well as her sister. The rest of the household tried to carry on as normal, hoping against hope for Miss Elizabeth's safe return.  
  
Faye knows nothing of the unfolding drama, until one afternoon when she feels a cool breeze come through the window and tickle her face gently. At first, she doesn't know where she is, or how she got there. But slowly, slowly, she realises she is in her bed, that it is late afternoon, and Susie is dozing in the chair by the window.  
  
She closes her eyes as more memories flood in, and then..she remembers seeing Hendon dead, murdered, and the scream rises unbidden from her throat. Susie starts, and runs to Faye's side, holding her close as the scream subsides into sobs.  
  
Faye recovers over the next few days, and is permanently frustrated by having to stay in bed. Susie tries her best to divert her, and tells her everything that has happened during Faye's fever-induced absence. Faye almost smiles when she hears that her idol did indeed escape his jail, but then she remembers he is a pirate, and evil; just like the man who killed Hendon.  
  
On the fourth morning since Faye regained consciousness properly, she wakes to find Susie not there, occupying her customary chair by the window. Fuzzy- headed, Faye sits up in bed. The shutters are open and down in the bay she can just make out a ship that she seems to recognise. Can it be? The Dauntless? And that means...  
  
Faye's face splits into a giant-sized grin when she thinks that Miss Elizabeth might actually be home. As she goes to get out of bed, the echoing sound of running feet comes along the passage, and a dishevelled Miss Elizabeth bursts into the room.  
  
'Faye!' she cries, and hugs her surrogate little sister furiously.  
  
Faye hugs her back just as hard.  
  
'I'm so sorry - Susie only told me this morning that you'd been so ill..'  
  
'It's alright.' Miss Elizabeth hugs Faye again, and Faye enjoys the feeling of love and warmth that surrounds her.  
  
'Do you forgive me for not coming to see you straight away?'  
  
Faye smirks, a smirk that Elizabeth has never seen on her face, yet feels she recognises.  
  
'I will if you tell me everything that happened to you.'  
  
Elizabeth hesitates.  
  
'I will, but you won't believe me.'  
  
'Try me. Please?'  
  
Elizabeth gives in, and, against her better judgement, tells the story.  
  
By the time it is over, the sun is high in the sky. Faye is left gaping, knowing Miss Elizabeth wouldn't lie to her but also knowing that what she has just heard can't possibly be true.  
  
'And they're really going to hang Jack Sparrow tomorrow?'  
  
Elizabeth nods, her eyes filling with angry tears. 'I hate them for it, he's a good man'-  
  
'He's a pirate.' Faye states.  
  
'And a good man.'  
  
Faye sighs. 'Can I see him?'  
  
'Why?'  
  
'Because..I just want to.'  
  
'No.'  
  
Faye is taken aback.  
  
'Why not?'  
  
'Look, Faye, I just..I just don't think you should. The cells are no place for a little girl.' Miss Elizabeth gets up. 'I should go and get dressed properly. I'll come and see you again later.'  
  
After she has gone, Faye is still sat up in bed, with her arms folded and her face like thunder.  
  
'I am NOT a little girl,' she tells the world at large. In her head she adds, but I am sneaky...  
  
------------------  
  
Faye's day is dull. Miss Elizabeth doesn't come back until the evening, and only then just to tuck Faye in. But Faye does not sleep.  
  
She waits until she can't hear any more noise from downstairs, and whiles away the time by thinking about Miss Elizabeth's adventure. When she feels sure that the house is asleep, she reaches for her tinderbox. Her candle lit, she dresses again complete with her red scarf. Clutching her wooden bird in one hand and her flickering candle in the other, she creeps out of her room, down the many stairs, along passages, and finally out into the night.  
  
Faye refuses to admit that she is afraid, even to herself. Yet when her candle gets caught in a gust of wind and goes out, she clutches her bird tighter. She leaves her burnt out candle by the gate, and continues down into the town.  
  
It is a longer way to the cells than she remembers through the quiet midnight streets, and her ingenuity is exhausted on how to deal with the jail guards. She need not have worried; both men are asleep. Faye sneers at them - the greatest pirate in the Caribbean in their charge, and they fall asleep. Silently, Faye creeps past them, and down the dark steps.  
  
The cells are not a black as Faye had thought they would be. Moonlight is streaming in and there is a torch in a bracket burning on one wall. None of the cells are occupied except for one at the far end, where the torchlight does not reach. She can see Jack Sparrow standing by the window, looking down at the bay. He has the moonlight shining on his face, and she is struck by the sadness in his expression. He is not looking at what is in front of his eyes, but at something in his mind.  
  
She steps forward cautiously, and he is instantly alert. He whips around, calling out, asking who's there. Faye walks up to his cell so she is stood right in front of the bars.  
  
'I told you you'd escape.'  
  
Jack sways across the cell to her, and kneels down so as to be more on her eye height.  
  
'Didn't do me much good though, did it.Say, what are you doing down 'ere so late anyway?'  
  
Faye sits down, as her feet are hurting her from the long walk. It is truth time.  
  
'I wanted to see if everything Miss Elizabeth said was true. About the pirates and about you, Captain.'  
  
'Ah, so you're a maid in the Governor's residence then?'  
  
Faye nods. 'Well, I would never want to tarnish Miss Elizabeth Swann's reputation, so I'll say that yes, whatever she's told you is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.'  
  
Jack sits cross-legged on the other side of the bars from Faye, and his gaze shifts accidentally from her face, to the carving in her lap. It's a phoenix, and, more to the point, a dark wood phoenix with a broken tail feather. Jack's heart starts to beat faster.  
  
'Where did you get that?' he asks.  
  
'It was my mother's,' Faye tells him.  
  
'What was 'er name, your mother?'  
  
'Maggie.'  
  
Jack's eyes grow wide.  
  
'Maggie..' he says, almost to himself. He thinks for a moment, counting in his head. 'An' 'ow old might you be?'  
  
Faye is puzzled by Jack's questions, but sees no reason not to answer him with the truth. 'I was seven years old in March.'  
  
Jack looks at this girl whose name he doesn't even know. He sees her black hair, her deep brown eyes, her way of holding her head..he sees himself and he knows that yes, this is his daughter. This is his and Maggie's daughter. He feels a hotness behind his eyes, and tries to distract himself.  
  
'Do you know what it is you're holdin'?'  
  
Faye shrugs. 'It's just a carved bird.'  
  
Jack smiles at her, a genuine smile. 'Story time then, love. What you are holdin' is a phoenix. Before I start, do you know 'ow it came to be broken?'  
  
Faye shakes her head. 'It's always been broken.'  
  
'Oh. Well, no matter. On with the story. The phoenix comes from the east, you see, far far away. There is only ever one phoenix, and when it dies it becomes the ashes where its new egg waits to be 'atched. When a phoenix appears it's a good omen, but when it leaves it means bad news. So just you 'ang onto it, love, it'll bring you luck. Trust me, in this world you need all the luck you can get.'  
  
Faye has been watching Jack avidly throughout his tale, with an attentiveness that flattered him.  
  
'You tell a good story, Captain Sparrow.'  
  
'Why thank you, miss - look, please, just tell me your name.' Faye shakes her head.  
  
'Alright then. I shall give you a name, or I shall 'ave to keep calling you 'miss'. I shall call you Phoenix. It fits you very well, I think.'  
  
Faye smiles. 'Phoenix' she says, tasting the word.  
  
Jack looks out of the window, and sees the moon reaching its zenith.  
  
'Well, Phoenix, you really should be off now. Elizabeth would be worried if she found you were gone.'  
  
There is a pause, while Faye, Phoenix, gets to her feet. She turns to leave, but stops and looks at Jack, still sat in front of the bars.  
  
'I'll be there tomorrow, Captain, to witness your miraculous escape.'  
  
Jack laughs. 'You got some good vocabulary for a seven year old, Phoenix. But 'ad you thought of the fact that there might not be a miraculous escape this time?'  
  
Faye opens her mouth to speak but chokes on unspoken words. She hadn't thought of it, she had just accepted that everything would be alright. She lowers her head, her eyes filling with tears.  
  
'There has to be.'  
  
Whirling round, she runs out of the cells, unable to stay another moment in their hideous atmosphere. She runs every step of the way home, pausing only to pick up her candle. She flings herself onto her bed, and cries until there is no more salt left in her. To think that he could be dead by this time tomorrow..  
  
Listening to her fading footsteps, Jack lets himself fall onto the filthy cell floor.  
  
'You're right love,' he says to his absent daughter. Now I've found you, there 'as to be.'  
  
***  
  
Phew! Long chapter! Please review and tell me if it's too emotional..or just too damn long. 


	14. A miraculous escape

Credit to Tom this time for coming up with 'Phoenix', and obviously to Katrina for planning all this with me and to Sarah for being such a good proof reader...oh, and I don't own the film, the characters, actually I even stole this computer...  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Faye has made up her mind. She will go to the hanging, come hell or high water, just to make sure that he escapes. Just to see it. She feels like if she is actually there, nothing can go wrong, even though this makes no sense at all and Faye knows it.  
  
When Susie brings her her breakfast, Faye is already fully dressed, complete with red scarf and phoenix, and sitting on the edge of her bed.  
  
'What on earth are you doing up?' Susie asks angrily, as she puts the breakfast tray down on Faye's dresser. 'You're still recovering from your fever.'  
  
Faye stays calm. 'I have finished recovering. I feel just fine, and I want to go to the hanging.'  
  
'You're too young, it would give you nightmares.'  
  
'When have I ever had nightmares?'  
  
Susie tries to conceal her horror that Faye could want to see a man hanged, but then, although Faye doesn't know it, this is her father who is due to die...Susie is reluctant to let her, it seems so hideously morbid, but then this is history in the making. The hanging of the most infamous pirate in the Caribbean, and if anyone is strong enough to handle it, Faye is.  
  
'I really don't think it's a good idea, and I have no intention of going with you. So you'll have to find someone else to take you, because I'm not having you going on your own.'  
  
Faye hadn't thought in a thousand years that it would be this easy. 'Thanks Susie. I'll be really really good I promise.'  
  
'I very much doubt that. Eat your breakfast then go and find some poor soul who'll let you tag along with them.'  
  
Faye gobbles her breakfast as fast as she can. She has no intention of finding someone to go with her, and she just has to hope that Susie won't ask. She knows from experience and from overheard tales that Norrington sometimes tells that a hanging will take place at noon. So, this gives her about five hours to kill, and the sooner she is out of the house the better.  
  
Faye considers going down into the town and just wandering around, but she dismisses this idea as pointless. So, she rummages around under her bed until she finds the clinking bag of silver that's been under there ever since she can remember but that no one has ever found except her, 'Legendary Pirates', and her phoenix, and heads down to the market.  
  
Faye buys three apples, and a jug of grape juice that was going cheap, and proceeds up to the fort where, in four hours, her hero is set to be executed. Carrying all her purchases with her book in her money bag, Faye enters the fort through a side entrance, wondering why there are no guards.  
  
Turning a corner, she sees the main courtyard with the gallows being set up. It is swarming with redcoats, but Faye doesn't panic. Using her skill of going unnoticed, she manages to slither along by the walls, before reaching the stone staircase that leads to the battlements. She expects to get caught, and begins to work out a cover story in her mind. She need not have worried – she is as invisible as a chameleon.  
  
After the hard climb up the staircase, she reaches the high battlements of the fort. Usually there would be guards here, but today they are all in the courtyard below. Faye reasons that no one will come up here, but still she settles herself behind the edging walls that run alongside the battlements, facing out onto the harbour. She can see the gallows on one side, and one of the lower fortification walls on the other. Facing the gallows side, she sits down in a small patch of shade with her back against a wall, and begins to read her book, and eat the first of her apples.  
  
-----  
  
The time passes surprisingly fast. Faye has finished all her apples and most of her book by the time she hears the crowd surge in to see the Captain hanged. There are shouts as he is brought in, with his hands tied firmly in front of him. Faye gets to her feet, and peers down into the courtyard. All attention is on him now, so no one is going to look up and see her.  
  
Things progress quickly. Miss Elizabeth, the Governor, and Norrington arrive, but Faye only sees them for a second as they take up their position in the archway in the wall below where Faye is standing. The charges against the Captain are read out, the drum roll begins, and – what? There is some kind of disturbance, a man in a hat is shoving the crowd aside – Faye can't see what is happening. She leans forward and almost loses her balance, screwing her eyes up against the sun, forcing them to see.  
  
It's Will! She gasps as she recognises the man in the hat. The executioner pulls the lever and she almost screams as Jack Sparrow falls but – the glint of metal in the sunlight- he's stopped falling! Will is on the scaffold, fighting off the executioner, sending him tumbling into the crowd. Faye wishes she were closer, but it looks as if Will has cuts the rope around the Captain's neck...he disappears from view as he falls through the trap door in the floor of the scaffold, but only for a moment, and reappears running, with Will nor far behind.  
  
Faye is breathless, this is the miraculous escape! Will and the Captain take the rope that was to be the instrument of the pirate's death, and send three redcoats tumbling into the dust. Running up the steps to the archway under Faye's feet, they send another two sprawling. And then...and then...they are under the archway and Faye can see nothing. She bites down on her tongue in her frustration, and tastes blood. She dashes to the other side of the wall, and sees Will and Captain Sparrow back against a pillar at the centre of a circle of bayonets, the Governor, Norrington...she tries to hear what is being said but the wind carries their voices away. Miss Elizabeth steps into the circle, the redcoats shoulder their weapons again...Faye jumps as a blue and orange parrot lands on the cannon next to her. It regards her suspiciously for a minute, as if it were evaluating her, before taking off again.  
  
The Captain notices this parrot for some reason, and begins to walk away from the group. He speaks to the Governor, Norrington, Miss Elizabeth, and the to Will...Faye almost wants to stamp her foot in frustration that she cannot hear the words...Then, in answer to her unspoken prayer, a further miracle. The wind changes, and Faye can hear what the Captain says, as he backs towards the sheer wall that falls to the sea.  
  
'This is the day you will always remember as the day that...' He glances up, just for a moment and sees Faye, at the exact moment that he reaches the wall. The shock of it startles him, and he loses his balance and falls backwards, down into the sea.  
  
Faye's heart leaps into her mouth. He'll drown for sure, how can he get safely to land now – surely he can't swim across the bay. Just as she thinks these thoughts, she hears a shout from below her of 'Sail ho!'  
  
Rounding into the bay is a ship, and Faye can just make out the tiny dark dot of the Captain swimming away towards it. She crosses her fingers, and hopes that he makes it. Perhaps it's his ship, she thinks, what luck that would be.  
  
Faye sits down in her patch of shade again, and drinks the rest of her grape juice in one long swallow. Idly, she wonders if she will ever see Captain Jack Sparrow again. She opens her book, and looks at his picture. Such a shame she couldn't have gone with him somewhere, and got away from domestic drudgery. Ah well, she reasons to herself, I can make my own miraculous escape some other time.  
  
Closing the book with a snap, she gathers her belongings and sets off for home. It is her day to help with lunch, and Susie will be wondering what's taking her so long.  
  
***  
  
Keeping Faye out of camera shot was so damn difficult... Anyway, just to let you all know, this is not the end! No way is this the end, there is a lot more to come. Please review! 


	15. Only a little

Thank you to all my lovely reviewers and I'm sorry this has been such a long time in coming, but the story underwent some rather drastic rewriting due to a lack of plot. I'm very sorry and it (probably) won't happen again. Oh, and I DO own POTC – hey did anyone else see that pig fly past? I am deeply disappointed about the lack of Oscar for Johnny...excuse me while I go and cry...read the chapter until I get back.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
In a film, it is easy to show the passage of time, by, say, pages tearing themselves from a calendar or a tree changing with the seasons, or clouds flickering across the sky. With writing it's a little more difficult, but just imagine the calendar, the tree and the clouds and it has the same effect, more or less.  
  
Many years have passed since Faye saw Jack Sparrow swim across the bay to the Black Pearl, and in that time, much has changed. Everything has changed in fact. Miss Elizabeth Swann has become Mrs Elizabeth Turner, and when she moved into a new house that the Governor had had built for her and Will, Faye and Susie moved too. Susie is now the housekeeper, and Faye is Elizabeth's personal maid.  
  
Stannard also moved with the Turners, as the head butler. Susie and Stannard were married not long after Elizabeth and Will, so Faye does finally have an uncle. And yet, both these marriages have something sad in them for Faye. Susie is now much too busy to really have time for her anymore, not that she ever had much time anyway, but Faye feels overlooked much more now than she ever did. As for the lady of the house, well, Faye has lost her childhood friend. Her only friend, in fact, as growing up in the Governor's house left her isolated.  
  
Elizabeth has children of her own, two boys. It is part of Faye's job to look after them and see that they don't get into too much mischief. Jack, the elder son by two years, was named after Faye's idol, and like his namesake, he has an almost magnetic attraction to mischief. Edward, the younger son, is a chubby bouncing four year old who resembles his grandfather the Governor in almost every respect, and is utterly devoted to Faye. Faye loves them both, and tries hard to keep them happy and out of trouble, but is very conscious of her failings at bringing up children.  
  
As for Will, he now owns the smithy where he was an apprentice. He has an apprentice too, Matthew, who is only a few years older than Faye. Between Faye and Matthew, though, there is something of a secret.  
  
All this time Faye has been outwardly the perfect servant. She does as she's told, is clean and tidy, and learns things easily. She has less freedom now than she did when she was younger, but her habit of early rising for those few liberating hours each morning has not left her. At dawn, she gets dressed and heads down to the smithy where Matthew waits for her.  
  
This morning, however, she is ahead of time, and finds the smithy still locked. She sits down on the steps to wait for Matthew, and watches the sun come up over the town. It is not long before she sees him coming down the street with the keys in his hand. Faye gets up, and he quickens his pace towards her.  
  
'You're a little late, aren't you?' she says as he reaches her.  
  
He makes a face at her, and goes up the steps to unlock the smithy door. He holds it open for her, and she curtseys in a gesture of mock respect. They both laugh, and go inside.  
  
Matthew starts up the forge, and Faye feeds the aged donkey while she waits for him. She likes being here, she feels at home. There is none of the stiff formality that exists between some people at the Turners' house, and she can relax without worrying whether a bell will ring and she'll have to go and clear up Edward's latest breakage, or make Miss Elizabeth something to eat.  
  
'Alright, I'm done,' Matthew calls to her, and sure enough the forge is roaring.  
  
Faye takes two swords off the wall where they hang, and throws one to Matthew. Casually, he reaches out and catches it almost expertly.  
  
'Very good, I'm impressed. '  
  
'I had to catch it or else it would have sliced my ear off.'  
  
He moves to face her, with the shining blade held out in front of him.  
  
Faye runs her sword down his, enjoying the noise it makes. 'Only a little,' she says, and grins.  
  
The two are well matched. Will taught Matthew to fight when he took him on as an apprentice, and Matthew began teaching Faye after they met when she was sent to the smithy on an errand. That was several years ago, and most mornings since they have practised against each other.  
  
Matthew fights honourably, just like his master taught him to, but Faye has adapted these teachings and has become much more of a dirty fighter. She sees no reason for there to be rules, and this simply means that Matthew must be very much on his toes during these morning sessions. He already has a livid scar on his left shoulder from last year when Faye got overenthusiastic.  
  
They have a complex set of rules for deciding who wins, which Faye rarely pays attention to. Questions would be asked if either of them were found to have serious wounds, as they were when Faye stabbed Matthew, so the concept of first blood to be drawn is out. Today, fortune favours Faye. Matthew ends up flat on his back with Faye's sword at his throat, and his own sword kicked away across the floor.  
  
'You cheated.'  
  
Faye smirks. 'You always say that.'  
  
He hauls himself to his feet. 'That's because you always cheat.'  
  
Faye shrugs. 'I should go back to the house.'  
  
'I'll see you tomorrow?'  
  
'Of course.'  
  
There is an awkward pause, the same one that there is every morning. Matthew looks at Faye, and wonders if she knows how he feels. Maybe tomorrow he'll tell her. Blue eyes meet brown, then brown cut away. Both Faye and Matthew pretend the pause didn't exist.  
  
Faye turns, and heads out of the door into Port Royal's morning. All the way home she thinks about the sandy-haired blue-eyed Matthew, and about the way he looks at her. She wonders if he knows how she feels. Maybe tomorrow she'll tell him.  
  
Once she gets back to the house, she sneaks up to her room and washes again. She checks herself in her mirror quickly, and pulls the covers up over her bed. The room is getting dusty; she should really clean it a bit. She runs her finger along the mantelpiece- it's filthy, and the phoenix is covered in a layer of grime. The phoenix... Memories come back to Faye, all in a rush. 'Legendary Pirates', the jail cell, the hanging, the escape, her red scarf...What happened to the scarf?  
  
Faye dashes over to her dresser, and goes through ever drawer until, finally, at the back of the bottom drawer she finds it. It is a little crumpled, but she shakes it out, and on impulse, ties it around her head. She looks at herself in the mirror again, and wonders if she'll get away with it. Probably, she decides, and she moves out of the door, and down to start another day as a housemaid.  
  
***  
  
I really thought that poor lonely Faye needed some kind of a love interest who would suit her. Hey, an apprentice and a pirate (of sorts) fighting in the smithy...hmm, déjà vu... 


	16. The question

Hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, for once I didn't really leave you hanging, but this one will be different...  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
It is late afternoon on the same day. After all the hustle and bustle of getting Miss Elizabeth – she isn't really MISS Elizabeth anymore, but Faye still calls her by her old title – up and dressed, getting breakfast, cleaning up breakfast, sweeping, dusting, mending and all the myriad other things Faye has to do, this is a spot of calm in the endless storm. Faye is sitting under a tree in the grounds watching Edward and Jack playing tag. The theory is that it will tire them out before bedtime, but really Faye just likes the rest.  
  
'Faye! Faye! Come and play tag with us Faye!'  
  
Edward is pulling Faye by the hand, up from under her tree, and out onto the lawn. Edward's devotion to Faye is obvious. Jack likes to be grown up about things, and has been resolutely tucking himself up every night with no help at all from Faye, but Edward insists on being read to and hugged and tucked in so tightly that Faye worries about cutting off his circulation.  
  
Jack rushes up to Faye, and taps her on the arm.  
  
'You're it!' he laughs, running away.  
  
Faye laughs too, and runs after him. They play until the sun is just beginning to sink below the horizon, when they are joined by an unexpected guest. Faye stops dead in her tracks when she sees who has walked out of the grand double doors and onto the lawn. She sees Will rarely these days, and the relationship between them has changed. Although she still thinks of him simply as 'Will' he is her employer and her master, and there are rules about how servants must respond to their masters.  
  
Faye bobs a curtsey.  
  
'Can I help you sir? We were just playing tag.'  
  
Will looks at his sons, the elder panting with breathless laughter, and the younger rolling on the grass kicking his feet at the sky and giggling.  
  
He smiles. 'So I see. May I join in?'  
  
'Certainly sir. You can take over from me if you like, I'm sure I'm needed in the kitchen.'  
  
'No, please stay.'  
  
'Oh really sir, they've tired me out.'  
  
'Please stay outside; it's too stuffy in the house.'  
  
'Alright sir. I'll watch from over there.'  
  
Faye returns to her tree, and sits under it watching the father and his sons. Jack, a miniature Will with big serious eyes contrasting with a wicked smile and evil sense of humour, and Edward, sweet and innocent, and spoiled rotten by his doting grandfather. Faye smiles. Surely there is no better sight than this.  
  
Eight o'clock is bedtime for the two young Turners, with no quarter given on that score. Jack has moved out of the nursery into a room of his own next door, and Faye simply goes in to make sure he's blown out his candle before going to sleep. Edward however, still sleeps amid his toys and childhood books. He is tired tonight, and doesn't demand endless stories – his exercise this afternoon has tired him out.  
  
As Faye kisses him on the forehead, and turns to leave, he calls her back.  
  
'Yes?' she asks.  
  
'Faye, where are your mama and papa?'  
  
Edward, has an insatiable curiosity, and daily he plagues Faye with questions she doesn't know the answer to. In this case, she gives the only answer she knows.  
  
'My mama died when I was born. I only know her name was Maggie. I've never even seen a picture of her, but Susie says she had dark blonde hair and green-grey eyes, and that she was very pretty.'  
  
Edward thinks for a moment. 'What about your papa? Did he play tag with you, Faye?'  
  
Faye feels like she has been kicked in the stomach. She only ever thinks about her mother, but no one has ever said anything to her about a father...she tries to think up something to say to Edward, but luckily he is distracted.  
  
'I like playing tag with my papa, but it makes me so tired. I think I should like to sleep now.'  
  
Faye kisses him lightly on the forehead and bids him goodnight, as calmly as she can manage. Outside in the corridor she leans against the wall and tries to breathe normally. Why has she never thought about it? In her preoccupation with her mother, the question of a father never even skittered across her consciousness. How could she have lived so long and not even asked? Faye resolves that this is one question Susie must have time to answer.  
  
----  
  
All evening Faye tries desperately to get Susie alone, and she is constantly brushed off with errands or the old war-cry of 'I'm too busy!' that she knows so well. Faye feels her anger rising and rising, and almost is screeching with frustration when she is laying in bed that night and still no closer to any knowledge at all. She attempts to reason with herself that after so long another day or two doesn't matter, but in the end it is no use. She gets out of bed, and gets dressed.  
  
She creeps silently along the passage on the floor below hers, the passage that leads to the rooms of the highest ranking servants. Susie room is the door at the end, and carefully, carefully, she turns the doorknob. A drop of hot wax from her candle spills onto her hand, and she bites down the cry of momentary pain.  
  
The door eases open, and Faye goes in. She holds her candle high above her head, and sees that only Susie is in the bed on the far side of the room. Stannard must still be up with Will, Faye reasons. At least it makes life easier. Faye sets her candle down on Susie's dresser, and crosses the room. Gently, she shakes her aunt by the shoulder.  
  
'Wstfgl?' Susie opens her eyes blearily and squints through the gloom. 'Tom?'  
  
Thomas is Stannard's first name, Faye remembers.  
  
'No Susie, it's me, Faye.'  
  
'Faye? What are you doing here?' Susie sits up, pulling the bedclothes around her, the picture of annoyance.  
  
'I need to ask you a question,' Faye explains, sitting down on the bed.  
  
'Faye, it's the middle of the night! Go back to bed. We can talk in the morning –if it's so important it will keep until then. Go away.'  
  
'We will not talk in the morning, because you will be too busy. We will talk now. Right now.'  
  
'Will it make you go back to bed sooner if I agree?'  
  
'Yes. Absolutely.'  
  
Susie sighs, and resigns herself. She reaches for her tinderbox, and lights her bedside candle.  
  
'What is it?'  
  
Faye takes a deep breath. 'Who's my father?'  
  
At first she thinks Susie hasn't heard her, she is simply staring incredulously at her niece. But then she replies, slowly.  
  
'Faye, please, can't we discuss this is the morning?'  
  
Faye merely glares. Susie has seen that glare on her sister, long ago, and is reminded of the promise she made to Maggie as she lay dying. She remembers the desperation of that night, the blinding terror, and Maggie's total faith in her to bring up the child she gave her life for. Susie sighs again.  
  
'It's quite a long story; may I start at the beginning?'  
  
Faye nods, all tiredness forgotten and all her nerves alight.  
  
Susie fills her lungs and prepares to let Faye in on the most shameful secrets of her existence.  
  
'Years ago, your mother and I both worked for the Swann family in England.'  
  
Faye nods again, she knows this.  
  
'We had no family at the time, or rather we did, but they weren't the kind of people who'd be too bothered about us. When the Governor was offered his Governorship here, it was a great honour, so naturally the entire household was expected to go too. Our ship was the last ship. Most of the servants went before us, to prepare the house, but we came with Miss Elizabeth and the Governor. I took care of Miss Elizabeth; your mother was just sort of an on-board maid.'  
  
Faye waits with baited breath. Why can't she get to the point?.  
  
'On that crossing we rescued Mr Turner. We found him...'  
  
Faye cuts her off. 'I know the story about Wi- about Mr Turner, please, keep on with what you were saying before.'  
  
Susie frowns. 'Patience is a virtue, Faye. Anyway, just as we were coming into these islands, there was a storm. The ship was badly damaged and had to stop at a terrible place known as the Isla de Tortuga.'  
  
Faye nods. The pirate haunt; she's read about it in her books.  
  
'We were told to stay on board while the repairs were done, but your mother wanted to go and explore and buy something from the market. She didn't come back. They looked for her, but not for long as there was another storm coming in and we had to stay ahead of the weather. I cried and cried at the thought that we had left her there. It was there that she met your father.'  
  
'What? On Tortuga?'  
  
'Yes. I'm sorry that you had to know this, I hadn't wanted to tell you, but I promised your mother...anyway.' Susie wipes away a stray tear with the flat of her hand. 'While she was there, she had to find the money to get to Port Royal, and she had very little money on her when she left the ship. So she...she...she went to one of those houses where women...where they...' Susie takes a deep breath and tries to blot out the images that rise in her head.  
  
Faye is stunned. Whatever she had expected, it was not this. She can't speak. Her mouth is dry, but Susie doesn't even give her time to recover.  
  
'Your father went to her, he liked her, he kept her for a week until he was due to leave. He gave her a lot of money, and she used it to buy passage here. We hid her, me and Miss Elizabeth, and she told me everything. When she was dying, on the night you were born, she told me, when you were old enough to tell you...' Susie stops, the tears are flowing thick and fast now.  
  
'She told me to say that she loved him, and that he loved her. I don't know if he did or not, but she was so sure...'  
  
Faye reaches out to her aunt, and their tears mix together in mourning for a sister known well and a mother never met. They stay like this for a long time, until Susie hears Stannard's tread on the stairs down the hall. They pull apart, and Faye gets up to go, but turns back at the last moment.  
  
'Susie, do you actually know who my father was?'  
  
Here it is, a get-out clause. All Susie has to do is say no and that will be the end of the matter. Faye need never know. Yet, Susie can see the desperate plea in the eyes of her sister as if it was yesterday, and she knows she must not lie.  
  
'Yes, I do know who you're father was. Is – as far as I know he's still alive.'  
  
'Please Susie, please tell me. I have to know.'  
  
'Are you sure? Because once you know a thing you can't un-know it.'  
  
'Susie! If you love me at all, please tell me!'  
  
Susie fixes her eyes on Faye. 'Your father...'  
  
'Yes?' Faye can barely breathe at all; the thought that she might not know his name doesn't matter, this faceless man will have a name, and that is all that she cares about.  
  
'Your father is Captain Jack Sparrow.'  
  
Faye sits down heavily on the floor, dazed. She hears thuds of feet, and feels strong arms lift her up. She sees her uncle's face smiling quizzically at her as her carries her back up to her bed, no questions asked. Her father is not a faceless man. She knows his face as well as she knows her own. As if she saw it in the mirror every morning.  
  
***  
  
Do I need to say anything? No, except: please review! 


	17. Forever and ever

Thanks so much for reviews, I love getting them – the more you review, the more I'll write!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Faye is stood on the beach, just in the place where the sea meets the sand. The wind is blowing her hair back from her face, and ocean is cold on her bare feet, but she doesn't notice. She can't see the docks from here; she can't see any signs of civilisation at all because of the fog that has rolled in overnight. Here, it is just her, the sea, and the gulls that appear overhead, floating in the ether. I'm still me; she repeats to herself over and over again, I'm still me. Nothing's changed, I'm still me.  
  
After staring out of her window all night at the swirling mists, then coming down here as soon as the grey of dawn began to light the sky, she should be tired. She isn't though, she is just numb. She wonders if maybe she should feel happy, or angry, or anything at all except this deadness. No one knows where she is, and it will most likely be a few hours before anyone realises she's gone. Matthew will notice when she doesn't turn up at the smithy, but she doesn't care. She doesn't care what anyone thinks or how worried anyone might be, none of it matters.  
  
She listens to the muffled sounds of the sea and the calls of the gulls, feels the squash of the sand under her feet. Her shoes are somewhere on the rocks behind her but if they were washed away by the tide Faye wouldn't notice. I'm still me, she tries to convince herself, I'm still who I've always been.  
  
She isn't though, now there is something else in her. She isn't an innocent; she is the offspring of a whore and a pirate, she is degraded, sullied. Her existence is wrong, and right now at this moment she wants to throw herself into the ocean and have it wash away the filth of her being. The desire to be clean of the horror she is covered in almost overwhelms her, and in the terror of it an unearthly shriek tears itself from her throat as her legs give way under her, throwing her onto the wet sand. There she lies, with the salt from her eyes mixing with the salt of the ocean.  
  
Time passes, she doesn't know how much. She just stays there, weak, getting colder and colder. After a fleeting age, she hauls herself to her feet, and tries to brush off the wet slabs of sand that are clinging resolutely to her dress. No good can come of her laying on a frozen beach, starving and damp and risking catching cold. The sudden passion spent, she hunts for her shoes, and shoves her arctic sandy feet into them.  
  
It is a long uncomfortable walk back to the house, and the streets are still deserted. Deliberately, she takes the route home that does not go past the smithy. Sneaking in through the servants' entrance as quietly as possible, she makes her tortuous way up to her room. She washes the sand off her in her basin, and changes her dress. The silence in her head is deafening. From the corridor on the floor below she can her some of the other servants stirring. She pulls herself out of her room, and goes to work. Elizabeth notices her uncharacteristic silence as Faye helps her to get dressed, but merely assumes that she hasn't slept well. This is partly true, and Faye doesn't correct her when she voices her concerns.  
  
Next Faye goes to Jack's room, and finds that he has already washed and dressed himself. Faye is beginning to find this small assertion of independence mildly annoying, but as it saves her work, she doesn't complain, and simply sends Jack down to breakfast.  
  
Edward however, is sat up in bed playing with a toy soldier, making him march across the bedclothes. He beams at Faye, and babbles inanely to her chirpily as she washes his face and hands and scrubs behind his ears. But then she realises he has stopped talking, and is looking at her expectantly.  
  
'Sorry, what did you say?'  
  
Edward gives a small sigh, as if lamenting the attention span of grown ups, and repeats his question.  
  
'What does 'eternity' mean?'  
  
'Where did you hear a word like that?'  
  
'In church, yesterday.'  
  
Ah yes, Faye reminds herself, the family always go to church with the Governor. She herself rarely went, mainly because she never had the time.  
  
'It means forever. Always.'  
  
'How long is always?' Edward asks, as Faye slips his shirt over his head.  
  
'It's a very long time.'  
  
'Oh' Edward is thoughtful for a moment.  
  
In the quiet of Edward's thought, his brother burst through the door.  
  
'I thought I told you to go to breakfast.'  
  
'It's not being served yet.' Turning to his younger brother, Jack says 'Hurry up slow coach.'  
  
'Don't be rude,' Faye chides.  
  
Edward ignores Jack completely, and slowly pushes his feet into his shoes. 'Will you be my friend for eternity, Faye? Will you stay here with me, forever and ever and ever?'  
  
Jack scoffs. 'She's not our friend, she's our maid. She has to do as we say.' Faye cuffs him gently around the ear.  
  
'When you're big you can tell the maids what to do, but for now, you have to do as I say.'  
  
'But Faye,' says Edward, tugging on her dress insistently, 'Will you be here forever?'  
  
In a split second, her life stretches out before her, unrolling like an Egyptian carpet. Another sixty years of being a maid and then nothing, a wasted life. Faye feels like she is choking.  
  
'Go down to breakfast, both of you,' she tells them, sternly 'I'm sure they'll be dishing it up now.'  
  
They hurtle out of the door, racing each other, as Faye stands with all her sensation flooding back in through the numbness. She can't stay here, not forever. The question rises unbidden, where would she go? Faye listens for a moment, and through the open window she dimly hears the lapping of the answer.  
  
***  
  
Apologies for getting a bit poetic, but never mind, sometimes it's nice to be lyrical. Should I get poetic more often, or is it annoying? Press the little button down there and tell me! 


	18. Tears

Crunch time. Does she go or doesn't she?  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
After lunch, no one seems to need Faye. Edward and Jack have been safely packed off for a nap, after much protesting on Jack's part, and Faye reckons she has a safe hour or so to get to the smithy and back. Will always comes home for lunch, so Matthew should be on his own.  
  
He is surprised to see her, and was worried after her non-appearance this morning.  
  
'I'm sorry,' she says, before he can even greet her 'I'm sorry I couldn't come, I couldn't get away.'  
  
'Oh. It's alright, don't worry about it.'  
  
He is her only friend, and all the way here Faye has been debating whether or not to tell him about her dubious parentage. She needs his advice on what to do, on whether to go after her father or not. Faye knows she can't be a maid forever, the thought chills her to her bones, but what could she tell this man who she hasn't met in years, who probably would want nothing to do with her? But he is family, and she is made in his image... She looks at Matthew, and she just can't lay the burden of the knowledge on him.  
  
'I need to ask you a question. Please just let me finish before you answer it, and tell me honestly.'  
  
Matthew nods. 'Ask away.'  
  
Faye takes a deep breath, encouraged. 'If there was something you knew you had to do, but you were afraid of it, and yet if you decided not to do it you know you'd regret it for the rest of your life, would you do it?'  
  
Matthew thinks for a moment as he tries to follow the sentence. 'Faye, please, tell me what this is about.'  
  
'Just answer the question, it would mean a lot to me.'  
  
Matthew weighs up both sides in his head for a moment. 'If I'd regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't, then I suppose that I'd just have to face my fears and do it, whatever it was.'  
  
Faye nods to herself, and sighs resignedly. 'Thank you. You've been a great help.'  
  
She looks up at him, and wonders melodramatically if she'll ever see him again. He is concerned, she can see so clearly, and she wants to be close to him, hold him, tell him don't worry, it's alright, it's alright. But if she does, if she steps forward, she won't ever be able to go. 'Goodbye Matthew,' she says, looking at the floor.  
  
'I'll see you tomorrow,' he replies, smiling, and turns back to the anvil.  
  
Faye bites her tongue and tries to hold back the salty water that is threatening to pour down her cheeks. She leaves in silence, for fear of not leaving at all.  
  
That evening, after the children in are in bed and before the servants eat dinner, Faye slips away down to the docks. She can hardly search the entire ocean for one man, but she knows a good place to start. She asks the first non-navy sailor she comes across when the next ship to Tortuga is leaving. He shrugs, and points her in the direction of an older man sitting at a makeshift table with a thick leather-bound book out it front of him.  
  
'Excuse me', she begins, 'when is the next ship to Tortuga leaving?'  
  
The man glances up at her. 'Why on earth would you want to go there, young miss?'  
  
Faye narrows her eyes at him, and the man shrugs. 'See that ship down there at the end? It's called 'The Eastern Star.' It's leaving for Tortuga at midnight tonight. If you want to barter passage, you'll have to go and speak to the captain.'  
  
'Tonight? I'm sorry that's far too soon.'  
  
'Well don't worry; it leaves again the same day next month. Hardly anyone goes to Tortuga from here, miss.'  
  
'Thank you so much,' Faye says, as she turns on her heel and heads down to the ship he pointed to. She can't wait a month, that's for certain. If she doesn't go tonight, she won't go at all.  
  
She finds the captain on the ship by seeking out the youngest-looking member of the crew and making his life difficult until he fetches his boss. The captain explains to Faye that this is a merchant vessel and they don't take passengers, but the promise of vast amounts of silver, about a month of Faye's wages, makes him think differently. All the same, he makes her understand that if she isn't on board by midnight, the ship will simply leave without her.  
  
Back at the house, Faye avoids her aunt and uncle, evades all calls for her help with various things, and slips up to her room to pack. A large but very old case that she unearthed from the attic is only half filled with her possessions – a few clothes, her phoenix, five years wages that she has never used, and 'Legendary Pirates'. She thinks about it for a moment, and decides to take the book out. It makes the pirate world seem glamorous when she knows by her own existence that it most definitely isn't. She has no need for those stories now.  
  
Faye is tired but she doesn't dare try to sleep in case she misses her boat. She stares out of the window, watching the stars, as the house below her gets quieter and quieter. She listens to the church clock chiming – eleven o'clock, the quarter hour, then the half hour. At the half hour she hauls her case out of her room and down the stairs as silently as possible. As she passes the corridor that leads to her aunt and uncle's room, tears begin to make their way down her cheeks. On the lowest and final floor, she wipes the tears away, squares her shoulders, and prepares to walk out into her future. It is only then she realises that she is heading totally unarmed into one of the most dangerous places in the Caribbean. She thinks quickly, scrabbling for a fast solution.  
  
In the drawing room, balancing precariously over the fireplace, Faye takes down one of the first swords Will ever made. He keeps it sharp, to show off Faye thinks, but at least it would keep her safer. She has no scabbard for it and no time to find one, so hurriedly she opens the case, praying that the sword will fit. It does, with a little persuasion, and Faye hurries out of the servants' entrance, down the path, out through the gate, and on through the town.  
  
The final sailors are just going up the gangplank and onto the ship as Faye rounds the corner at a run and pounds up behind them. The captain grins down at her.  
  
'We were starting to think you weren't coming.'  
  
'After all the money I gave you? Don't be ridiculous.'  
  
The captain is a little taken aback by this response, but smiles anyway. She's a character, this girl.  
  
Faye makes her way to the stern of the ship, and puts her case down. She ignores all the sailors running around behind her, and the captain's shouted orders. As the ship begins to pulls away from Port Royal, Faye stands and watches. She stays there for as long as it takes for the only home she has ever known to disappear into the mists. Out with the maid, she thinks, and in with the pirate.  
  
***  
  
Into the future...Please review! 


	19. Phoenix topples Goliath

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and once again I don't own anything that I don't own so nobody sue me! If anyone tries, well, let's just say I have a very good friend with an anger management problem...  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Several days later, the daily unpleasantness of the Tortuga dawn is forcing itself on the eyes of Captain Jack Sparrow. His tired and mainly hung-over crew are making the ship ready to set sail, under his not-so-watchful eye. At present, he is following the progress of the merchant vessel that is coming into port.  
  
That kind of ship only ever takes food of some kind as a cargo, nothing of much interest to a pirate, but it is not the ship itself that he is watching. It is the figure standing on the prow of the ship that has caught his eye. As the ship draws closer, the figure comes more into focus. A girl in a black dress, with her dark hair blown back by the wind, and - Jack rubs his eyes just in case they are misleading him – around her head is tied a red bandanna just like the one he himself is wearing.  
  
Something in the far reaches of his brain kicks him very hard, but he can't place the memory. All he knows is that he has seen this girl before, somewhere, long ago. He is disrupted from these thoughts by one of the crew, asking whereabouts some crates should go now the main hold is full. Jack shrugs the question away, and goes back to work.  
  
-------  
  
Faye gets off the ship, and looks around her. She wrinkles her nose at the stench, and tries to ignore it. She can see people already scurrying about, carrying baskets, and these people have the word 'maid' written all over them. Faye sighs. She needs a job if she is to stay here for any length of time, because she doesn't know when, or if, her newly acquired father will be back again. She has no idea how to go about actually getting a job, seeing as how she more or less grew up into her last one, so she simply walks further into the town, waiting for inspiration to strike.  
  
She hasn't gone far when she spots one of these women outside a tavern, sweeping the steps. It's a difficult task as she has to sweep around several unconscious men, and as Faye draws nearer, she can see that the woman is crying.  
  
'Excuse me,' Faye begins, 'I'm sorry if this is rude, but are you alright?'  
  
The woman seems startled to be spoken to, and when she looks up Faye sees that she has cuts across her face, and a black eye.  
  
'No, I'm not alright. And it's not rude, that's the nicest thing anyone's said to me in weeks.'  
  
'Do you work here, then?'  
  
'Yes,' the woman sniffs. 'I want to leave but I have nowhere else to go.'  
  
'I'm sorry for asking so many questions, but what happened to your face?'  
  
The woman shrugs. 'I got caught up in a bar brawl two nights ago, and the night before that as well, when I was clearing tables. Honestly, the brutes that come here need to learn the difference between a woman for sale and a woman who just wants to take their glass back to the kitchen.'  
  
Faye doesn't know what to say, and there is an uncomfortable silence for a moment.  
  
'Why not go and work somewhere else?'  
  
'I tried. They're all like this around here. But anyway, why are you here? This is not place for a girl like you.'  
  
'I know. But I have to wait for...someone.'  
  
The woman gives her a wry smile. 'Believe me; your sweetheart won't take any notice of you here. Get back on the ship you came from, and go home.'  
  
The woman returns to her sweeping, but Faye catches her by the arm and drags her attention back.  
  
'Listen, I understand that this is a bad place, but I can take care of myself. I need a job, and if everywhere is as bad as everywhere else here, then I might as well not walk any further. Do they need help here?'  
  
She stares at Faye in disbelief. 'After all I've said, and after looking at me, you still want to work here?'  
  
'Yes,' Faye states simply.  
  
'Don't say I didn't warn you. I'll take you inside to see the management – her name's Scarlet, and for heaven's sake don't ever do anything to annoy her. I'm Lydia by the way.'  
  
'Well, I owe you a favour Lydia.'  
  
'No you don't,' Lydia says as she herds Faye inside 'you'll be cursing me for ever having allowed you inside here in a week or two. What's your name, anyway?'  
  
Faye is ready for this question. She has no intention of telling anyone her real name, and there is another one that she found more fitting for her in her new change of lifestyle.  
  
'Phoenix,' she tells a disbelieving Lydia, 'my name is Phoenix.'  
  
'Unusual name...'  
  
Phoenix, neé Faye, smiles. 'I had unusual parents.'  
  
-----  
  
A fortnight later, halfway to Mexico, Jack knows where he has seen that girl before. He turns the ship around, and heads back to Tortuga, much to the chagrin and general confusion of his crew. He prays that she will still be there, the girl with the phoenix.  
  
-----  
  
Faye is back to thinking of herself as plain old Faye again. Down on her hands and knees scrubbing at the stairs for the fourteenth morning in a row, she appreciates the irony that she left life as a maid in a wealthy house, and is now a maid in a wealthy whorehouse. Lydia is generally is too busy to take much notice of her – a situation that Faye knows all too well from years with Susie. Faye does her best not to feel slighted by this, and convinces herself that it's all for the best, really.  
  
For the first time since she actually started earning money, Faye is spending it on a regular basis. Tortuga has a good many armouries, and Faye is building up an impressive weapon collection. After her first night in Tortuga, she sleeps with a loaded pistol under her pillow, despite the fact that she has only the haziest idea of how to reload it. After her second night in Tortuga, when Scarlet made her work in the bar, Faye shortened her dresses, bought a pair of boots, and has a long dagger safely tucked into each one at all times.  
  
The girls take it in turns to run the risk of working in the bar serving drinks, but despite Ajedrez, the well-muscled Spaniard that Scarlet hired to keep order, there is a brawl every single night, sometimes more than once. Tonight, Faye remembers with a grimace as she moves down to the next stair, is her turn.  
  
-----  
  
It is not as bad as the first night she worked in this ninth circle of hell that masquerades as a tavern. It is worse. There are more people, and the stench of sweat and beer and blood is almost overpowering. Faye is ordered to and fro by the 'ladies' she works for and their companions, and gives thanks at least that nothing too awful has happened yet.  
  
Unfortunately for Faye, however, it is just about to. Faye has two tankards of beer in each hand, and is making for a cluster of men in the far corner of the room, but on the way she trips over the dress of one of the younger whores, and in some complicated way manages to drop all four tankards as well as throw beer in the face of the woman's companion. He stands up, dislodging the woman – her name is Cate, Faye remembers from somewhere – and snarls at Faye.  
  
He is tall, wide, and stinks like a sewer. His face is a crisscross of scars, and one of his ears is half missing. Almost casually, he hits Faye hard across the face with the back of his hand. She feels as if her eye is about to explode, but at the same time she feels a red hot rage build up inside and fill her with loathing for the detestable creature. Just at the moment her blood boils, the man laughs.  
  
'Stupid little'- He gets no further.  
  
Faye rises from the depths, and with all the force of her anger and disappointment at the last pointless two weeks of drudgery, he knee makes contact with his most vulnerable spot. He looks surprised for a moment, and Phoenix, no longer dreary Faye the put-upon maidservant, takes advantage of this to hit him as hard as she can in the stomach. He is drunk she realises, or else he would probably have been able to tear her head from her shoulders.  
  
He doubles up, and she steps smartly around him and brings her fist down on the back of his neck then on the precise spot on his thigh that she knows will deaden all feelings in his leg. Deprived of balance, the man falls sideways onto the floor, still conscious, but surprised and somewhat humiliated. She whips the dagger out of her right boot and presses it against his throat.  
  
The man tries to get up, but only succeeds in drawing a spot of blood on his own throat.  
  
'As soon as you can walk again,' Phoenix tells him in a pleasant voice 'get out. You can come back when you learn how to behave.'  
  
She stands up slowly and steps away from him.  
  
'In fact,' she says as she sees Ajedrez looking on incredulously, 'my good friend here will help you out. Won't you, Ajedrez?'  
  
Ajedrez nods, still in amazement, and hauls the incapacitated pirate out into the street. Twirling her dagger in her fingers, it is only now that Phoenix realises that the room is silent and everyone is watching her. Scarlet is making her way over, and Phoenix awaits the tirade.  
  
'Ordinarily,' Scarlet tells her, 'you'd be out of here before you could blink, but ordinarily, no one could beat that man in a fight.'  
  
Phoenix doesn't know what to say. 'Aren't you going to send me away?'  
  
'I think, after that little display, you might be quite a crowd draw. From now on, you work down here every night and if anyone hits you, you give as good as you get. Understand?'  
  
Phoenix nods, unsure whether to be pleased that has still has a job, or terrified that she may now have to fight for her life every night.  
  
'Good.' Scarlet looks at this girl, with her boots and her bandanna, and forces down a sensation of déjà vu. No matter. It's a risk having her of course, but if there's a chance she might bring in more customers, it's a risk worth taking. 'Now though, go and sweep the upstairs hallway – you can't be seen wiping up beer spills tonight. And please, stop waving that dagger around. It's unnerving.'  
  
Phoenix obediently tucks her dagger back into her boot, and goes to fetch a broom.  
  
***  
  
Thanks for reading, stay tuned! 


	20. The Phoenix and the Sparrow

Well, here we are again then. Thank you to everyone for reviewing, and the film does not belong to me but to the Almighty Mouse. That's all.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
'Yeah, I've seen her. Tallish, long dark hair, red bandana, yeah I've seen her alright.'  
  
'Really? Where?'  
  
'In Scarlet's tavern. You see this?' The man who is speaking points to a large barely healed scrape on his throat. 'That was a gift from her. Bloody wench doesn't know her place.'  
  
'Well,' says Jack as he gets up from the table in a dank cellar tavern on the western side of Tortuga, 'I dare say you deserved it, eh?' He takes a gold piece out from a bag under his coat, and throws it to the man. 'Have a drink on me, Harry.'  
  
Harry grins, showing a mouthful of rotten teeth.  
  
'That I will Captain. But why are you looking for her, if you don't mind me asking.'  
  
Jack turns around. 'I thought that piece of shine would buy me no questions, Harry.'  
  
Harry gulps his beer hurriedly. 'Sorry, Captain, I didn't mean nothing, honest, forget I asked.'  
  
Jack grins. 'That's the spirit.'  
  
------  
  
All these people keep glancing at her as she pours drinks, she notices. Faye the miserable barmaid feels like a circus animal. She hasn't been called on to perform yet though, but it won't be long.  
  
The whores have been whispering about her to their potential customers, and the customers have been passing it on. Every night so far Faye has become Phoenix in her mind, and felled at least one inebriated pirate if not more. She is beginning to feel somewhat tired of it, and also somewhat bruised and sore. She wonders vaguely if Scarlet would give her a night off, but it's doubtful. Phoenix is good for business.  
  
As Faye is handing a tankard to a dark woman sat by the bar, there is a cheerful roar from across the room. That always means a friend has arrived, and generally leads to beer flowing like water, the dragging up of old grievances, and then someone blacking someone else's eye. She sighs, and makes her way over to ask if anyone might like vast amounts of alcoholic refreshment.  
  
She draws nearer to the table, and lazily runs her eye round it, looking for the regulars. There's Harry, the man she toppled that first night, who doesn't seem to have the intelligence to hold a grudge. Four beers per night – no more, no less. Next to him is Jacobs, who only ever orders Scotch for some reason, and next to Jacobs is the newcomer. Faye stops, and stares until she thinks her eyeballs will fall out. Here he is, the man she has come to find.  
  
Her father looks up, and looks directly at her. She sees the flicker of recognition that crosses his face, and she knows that he knows. To Phoenix, who wears daggers in her boots and has the sea in her blood, the world seems to hold its breath. He smirks, and gets up.  
  
'I would like rum. In a bottle. Now. Don't make me have to ask again, girl.'  
  
She doesn't miss a beat, and joins in the game.  
  
'I'm sorry, sir, I couldn't quite hear what you said.'  
  
'Look love; just do as you're told. Savvy?'  
  
Harry cannot contain himself. 'Captain, it's her, leave her alone. It's not worth it.'  
  
Jack's grin gets wider. 'She's just a little girl, what can she do to me?' Turning to his daughter again, he says 'I told you, get me my rum. Why aren't you moving? Go!'  
  
He shoves her backwards in the direction of the bar, but Phoenix refuses to be shoved. The room has gone quiet, and she knows that now, for the crowd that watches, this is Showtime. And, she adds to herself, this is time to show him what I can do.  
  
She turns as if to go to the bar for him, but spins back around with a kick aimed at his stomach. He is ready for her, and catches her foot as it comes towards him. Easily, he knocks her off balance, and she is on her back on the floor. His companions burst into laugher, and Jack smiles at her predicament. When she leaps back to her feet with her long daggers in each hand however, they stop laughing.  
  
Jack draws his sword, and suddenly there is a widening circle around the two of them.  
  
'Do you think this wise?' he asks her. He hadn't intended it to go this far, he doesn't want to hurt her.  
  
She fixes him with a grim stare, and says nothing. She simply springs at him, blades raised. She catches him off balance, and he barely manages to block her. Phoenix fights like a demon, with the advantage that she has no reservations about wounding her opponent, up to a point. Metal clashes on metal and the impromptu battle takes them around the makeshift circle.  
  
A figure on one side of the room sips at a drink, studying how these two move, how they fight, even how they look. The figure gapes in disbelief at the other spectators – how can they not see it? They are so similar; so alike in almost every way. The shadow sips from the tankard again. This is it, finally. This girl is the key.  
  
Abruptly, the battle ceases. Phoenix can feel simultaneously the point of her father's sword at her throat and the reassuring potential stab of her dagger over his heart.  
  
'Checkmate,' she whispers, so the onlookers don't hear.  
  
He grins, and, unable to help herself, she grins back. The same grin.  
  
'Congratulations, love. You've done yourself proud.'  
  
She glows at this, but tries not to show it. He steps back, and sheaths his blade, while she tucks her daggers back into her boots. Deprived of bloodshed, the crowd turns its attention away from them.  
  
'It would have been better if I could have beaten you.'  
  
'You couldn't.'  
  
'Why not?'  
  
'I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, love. Or didn't you know?'  
  
'I know exactly who you are.'  
  
Jack nods. 'Naturally.'  
  
Phoenix dives into what must be said. 'You're my father.'  
  
***  
  
Cliff-hanger! Tee hee hee 


	21. Like father, like daughter

Me and my 'creative support team' (Katrina, whose birthday is TODAY (25TH March) so everyone say happy birthday to the co-author of this wonderful story!) are having some plot problems. We know what's going to happen, more or less, except for what's going to happen with Faye/Phoenix and Matthew. Will they get married; will Faye decided she wants to be a pirate; will they end up hating each other? Anything I/we use will obviously be credited to you. Anything (almost) goes!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
It takes Phoenix no time at all to pack. All that she has acquired in Tortuga are her boots, her daggers, her pistol, a few other assorted bits of weaponry, and an outfit of men's clothing. She bought this last because she thought it might be more convenient, but she felt like such a fool wearing it that she simply consigned it to the bottom of her case. She takes it with her though, just in case it comes in handy.  
  
Jack buys off Scarlet with a handful of assorted coins of various nations, and all that remains is for Phoenix to seek out Lydia and say goodbye. She finds her cleaning a window on one of the upper floors.  
  
'Lydia? Are you busy?'  
  
'Well, a bit, but'- Lydia catches sight of the case – 'where are you going?'  
  
'I'm leaving. My father is taking me away.'  
  
'Your father?'  
  
She gives a potted version of the truth, which still leaves Lydia astounded.  
  
'You're joking! Captain Jack Sparrow?'  
  
'Yes. And I'm leaving with him right now. Goodbye Lydia. Good luck.'  
  
Lydia smiles. 'The same to you, Phoenix. I see what you meant about unusual parents.'  
  
With that, Phoenix turns and leaves her last semblance of stability, and goes downstairs to where Jack is waiting.  
  
-----  
  
'So,' Phoenix begins as the two of them are sat on opposite sides of the small table in his cabin 'where should we start?'  
  
'What's your name, love? You never did tell me.'  
  
'Phoenix.'  
  
'Is that what they called you at the Governor's house?'  
  
She shakes her head. 'They called me Faye.'  
  
'Why the change?'  
  
'Because Faye was a boring little girl who scrubbed floors for a living. I don't want to be her anymore.'  
  
Jack nods, he can understand wanting to be someone else.  
  
Phoenix leans forward over the table.  
  
'Tell me about what happened with you and my mother,' she demands. 'My aunt told me a lot, but really I think you're in a better position to fill me in on the details.'  
  
'You're very impatient aren't you?'  
  
'Yes. I am also very curious.'  
  
The story pours out into Phoenix's waiting ears. Their meeting, their time together, and how he only realised he was in love with her mother at the moment he had to leave her. He tells Phoenix how, nearly a year later, he came back to find her mother, but then had to give her up for lost.  
  
'When I saw you in that cell the night before I was going to be hanged, I couldn't believe it. Even without the phoenix, just the way you looked...'  
  
She smiles a little at this. 'I know, I look like you.'  
  
'No, it wasn't that. There was just something about you that reminded me of Maggie so much, it almost took my breath away. But tell me something, why didn't you let me out of that cell?'  
  
'It...it never occurred to me.'  
  
He raises an eyebrow in disbelief, but accepts her answer and moves on.  
  
'You have to tell me some things now, love. First of all, how did you learn to fight like that?'  
  
With a pang, Phoenix thinks of Matthew for the first time in days.  
  
'A friend taught me.'  
  
'Ah. I have to say, though, I like the daggers in the boots idea. Very cunning.' Phoenix shrugs. 'It wrecks the boots. You have to rip the lining to tuck the blade in. I had to shorten all my dresses to make sure I could actually get them out again in a hurry.'  
  
'Why did you do it anyway?'  
  
'I could hardly carry a sword around Scarlet's with me, could I? It would have drawn too much attention to me.'  
  
Jack is incredulous. 'You have a sword?'  
  
Phoenix gets up from her chair, and squats down on the floor to open her case. As she pulls out all the metalwork she bought in Tortuga, Jack is secretly more and more impressed. Finally, at the bottom of the case under a wide assortment of clothing, she finds the sword she took from the Turners' wall. She takes it out carefully, and waves it through the air under Jack's nose.  
  
'Will Turner made it. I've...borrowed it. Temporarily.'  
  
'Tomorrow I'll have to see if you can use it. I'm not having anyone on my ship that can't defend themselves.'  
  
Quick as a flash, Phoenix is behind Jacks' chair, pulling his head back by his long hair, with her sword pressed up against his throat.  
  
'Believe me, Father, I can defend myself.'  
  
She lets go of his hair, and takes the sword away from his throat.  
  
'What did you say?' he asks, turning to face her.  
  
'I said I could defend myself.'  
  
'No, before that. You called me Father.'  
  
Phoenix shrugs. 'It's what you are. Unless you want me to call you Captain' –  
  
'No, no, it's fine, it'll just take some getting used to that's all.'  
  
The sword is beginning to get heavy in her hand, so she reaches past him, and lays it on the table. She makes her way back to her chair, and flops down into it. It's been a long day, and she can't be bothered to be ladylike. Not that it matters in front of a pirate, of course.  
  
'I'm going to be curious again,' she warns.  
  
'Hm? Oh, go ahead.'  
  
'Why do you have so many beads and things in your hair?'  
  
'Just because. I pick them up here and there, from different places. Would you like one?'  
  
'That depends. Are they lice-ridden?'  
  
Jack frowns slightly. 'I'm a pirate, not a barbarian.'  
  
He gets up, and goes to stand behind her. Carefully, he unties her bandanna and runs his fingers through her hair to get the few tangles out. As he starts to weave in several small tight plaits into the top layer of her hair, the ludicrousness of the situation strikes her. She giggles, and small girlish giggle, worthy of Cate or one of the other whores at Scarlet's.  
  
'No one would believe that an infamous pirate captain would know how to braid hair.'  
  
She can hear the amusement in his voice when he answers 'And no one would believe that a lady's maid could best any pirate, even a drunk one, in a fight with daggers that she kept in her boots.'  
  
She laughs. 'Touché.'  
  
There is silence for a while as Jack's fingers work their magic on Phoenix's dark mane. He ties twelve thin taut plaits in all, and ties her bandanna back on her head so that one carefully lies over the top of it. He takes a glittering silver ornament from his own hair, and painstakingly knots it onto the end of the braid overhanging her bandanna.  
  
She holds it up to the flickering light of the candles on the table, and examines it.  
  
'Where did you get this?'  
  
'In Nassau Port, about twenty years ago. I...borrowed it from a street vendor.'  
  
Phoenix spins round, and narrows her eyes.  
  
'You sacked Nassau Port.'  
  
'Can you blame me for keeping a little something to remember it? That was one of my proudest moments.'  
  
Phoenix yawns hugely, and then feels slightly guilty about having shown herself up.  
  
Jack smirks indulgently. 'Would you like to get some sleep, love?'  
  
'Yes please, or I think I might just fall down right here.'  
  
'Well, I won't ask you to sleep in the hold with the crew; frankly it's disgusting down there.' He thinks for a moment. 'I could rig you up a hammock in a small storeroom next to the galley if you like. We don't use it much.'  
  
Phoenix gets to her feet. 'That would be wonderful, thank you.'  
  
'Don't mention it.'  
  
Jack disappears to make good his promise, and Phoenix lovingly piles all her weaponry back into her case. The last thing she puts in is her sword, trying hard not to think of Matthew. He must be so worried about her...Her eyes begin to fill with warm tears, but she is jerked out of her emotion by Jack barrelling through the door and announcing that her chamber is ready.  
  
She takes her case, and follows him out onto the deck in the cold night air. From her vantage point she can see the night streets of Tortuga, and she is glad to be sleeping in a place where she doesn't have to keep a pistol handy. Jack takes her down a small set of wooden steps, and into what must be the world's shortest corridor, with only three doors off it. He cursorily point out the kitchen to the left, the hold to the right, and the storeroom straight ahead.  
  
Inside the tiny room is a chipped jug and basin, placed on an old crate along with a small shimmering candle, several other crates carelessly strewn about, and set in one wall is a small grimy porthole. The hammock is strung up between two sets of nails and runs the entire length of one wall. Phoenix smiles, and sets down her case.  
  
Jack is stood awkwardly in the small doorway.  
  
'Not what you're used to, is it love?'  
  
'It'll do just fine.'  
  
On an impulse, she gives him a swift businesslike kiss on the cheek.  
  
'Goodnight Father,' she says, as he wonders what to make of this sudden intimacy.  
  
'If you want anything I shall be in my cabin.'  
  
He turns to go, but then changes his mind, and sweeps his daughter up in a bear hug the like of which she has never had before. She returns it just as forcefully, each of them silently rejoicing in having found the other.  
  
Abruptly, he drops her, not quite sure what to do now. Phoenix sees that evidently coping with strong emotion is not his strong point.  
  
'Goodnight,' she tells him again.  
  
'Goodnight,' he answers, and steps out into the corridor, closing the door behind him.  
  
Phoenix looks around her small room, which is more like a cupboard. It is bare, shabby, and even with the light of a solitary candle she can see it desperately in need of a good clean. Even so, Phoenix thinks, I have never been so happy to be anywhere.  
  
***  
  
Thanks for reading – remember, tell me what you think you happen with Faye and Matthew! 


	22. A golden moment

So many lovely reviews! I am so happy, I have over 100! Thank-yous to plot- inspiring people are at the end of the chapter; I wouldn't want to spoil it for you all now would I? WARNING! LONG CHAPTER AHEAD!  
  
*** A Hard Man To Predict  
  
She sees Susie, Matthew, Edward, Elizabeth, all upset, all frantic, 'Where's Faye, Where's Faye?' It echoes around her head, face after tear- stained face appearing in from of her eyes...  
  
'Phoenix? Phoenix?'  
  
A gentle nudge in her side elicits a small grunt. She has to get back, has to let them know she's alright...  
  
'Could you wake up, lass?'  
  
She turns over, and wrenches her eyes open, slowly remembering where she is and what she's doing here.  
  
'Hmnph?'  
  
'The crew are getting ready to make way. Since you'll be coming with us, I really think they ought to know you're here.'  
  
As she shows no sign of getting out of the hammock, Jack has no choice but to lift her up and set her on her feet.  
  
'Sorry love,' he says as he takes her up on deck, 'but this is important.'  
  
Phoenix wakes up as soon as she is up on deck and the cold air hits her. There are about twenty toughened pirates, some of whom she recognises as having lain groaning at her feet in Scarlet's tavern. These ones almost imperceptibly seem to back away from her.  
  
'Alright you filthy rabble, listen up!'  
  
He seems oblivious to the fact that that they were all attentive before he shouted, and also to the fact that Phoenix was asleep five minutes ago and that loud noises don't go down well with the newly woken-up.  
  
'This,' he says, clapping a heavy hand down on Phoenix's shoulder, 'is my daughter, Phoenix.'  
  
He waits for the murmur of surprise to die down before he carries on.  
  
'She'll be with us for a while, and all of you, and I mean all of you, are going to help her in any way you possibly can. Archie, what are you looking so bloody scared about?'  
  
The redheaded man addressed as Archie, who Phoenix recognises partly from his hair and partly from the black eye she gave him, swallows nervously.  
  
'Nothing, Captain.'  
  
'Good. Off you go then, carry on.'  
  
The crew dutifully continue with their tasks, and Jack removes him arm from around Phoenix's shoulder.  
  
'Father,' she almost chokes on the unfamiliar word, 'I need a favour.'  
  
'Yes?'  
  
'I want to go back to Port Royal.'  
  
His surprise shows clearly. 'What? Why, you only just got here!'  
  
'I know, I know, I don't want to leave, but everyone must be so worried...I don't know what I was thinking just running off and not leaving a letter or anything to explain.'  
  
'I don't know, it's dangerous for us around Port Royal...too many navy ships, too many redcoats...'  
  
'Please, I need to go, they might think I've been kidnapped or murdered or anything, please, Father'- that word again-'please.'  
  
'No, it would be stupid to even try. The secret of being a successful pirate is choosing your battles wisely. Learn this, lass, and you'll be a very successful pirate.'  
  
-------  
  
However, the secret of being a successful daughter, as Phoenix discovers, is knowing how to wrap your father around your little finger. This is how the Black Pearl came to leave the wonders of Tortuga for that straight- jacket of propriety, Port Royal.  
  
On the third day of their voyage, Phoenix is in the crow's nest, on lookout. As soon as they crew found she has the magic combination of good eyesight, an ability to climb (despite her female clothing), and no fear of heights, they gladly left lookout duty to her.  
  
She loves the sensation of being up so high. This is what it must be like to fly, she thinks to herself. There are fewer ships on the ocean than she had supposed, and far fewer navy ships that she had ever thought possible. She hasn't even seen one yet...Just as this thought crosses through her brain; she sees white sails on the horizon, coming straight at them.  
  
Quickly, she takes out the telescope Jack gave her, and holds it up to her eye. Faintly, from the top mast, she can see the Union Jack flying. As fast as she can she scrambles down the rigging, yelling her discovery. The crew stop work and dash to the port side. Jack appears out of his cabin, and Phoenix tells him breathlessly what she has seen.  
  
Jack takes charge wonderfully.  
  
'Run up the British flag, and pass them as wide as you can! Phoenix, get back up to the crow's nest and tell me anything you see – if they speed up or turn I want to know as soon as possible. Get ready to run out the guns just in case...'  
  
Jack's orders fade in her ears as she climbs up to the crow's nest again. The other ship is much closer now, moving at a steady speed on a course to intercept. She shouts this down as loudly as she can, and sees Archie hurry away to tell it to Jack.  
  
She looks back again with the telescope and can just make out a person in the crow's nest of the other ship peering at her, with a similar telescope. She can even see the soldiers running about on deck, like little ants. And then, near the prow is the commander, resplendent in uniform. She looks further down, and nearly swallows her own tongue. Their guns are out.  
  
The climb down the rigging flashes past, and she pants out this intelligence to Jack.  
  
'Alright, they're looking for a fight, so we're going to give them one! Run out the guns! Now!'  
  
He catches sight of Phoenix's panicked face.  
  
'You fought me and almost won. You can handle these bastards. Get to the prow so they can see you clearly – I doubt that those honourable gentlemen would do a young woman like yourself any harm.'  
  
His confidence in her is genuine, so she does as he says. The ship is close now, but Phoenix runs down to her tiny cabin, hauls her sword out of her case, tucks her daggers in her boots and runs as fast as she can to the prow. She holds her sword high above her head, hair streaming in the wind, hoping the heroic pose will make her feel more courageous and less like she's going to die.  
  
And so it happens, that on this other ship, the Dauntless, Matthew sees the figure of what he assumes to be some pirate woman standing on the prow. Suddenly, he is taken back to that day in the smithy that seems like years ago. He saw this image in his mind then, and before he knows it he is sprinting down the deck as fast as he can, screaming at them not to shoot.  
  
Phoenix sees the form hurtle along the deck of the British ship, and hears its voice, muted thought it is by the roar of the pirates. She begins her own sprint down the length of the Pearl, shrieking like a harpy for them not to shoot. Jack reaches out and catches her as she almost falls by the helm.  
  
'What is this? If we don't shoot we're sitting ducks!'  
  
'My friend is on that ship! That ship's looking for me!'  
  
'My God.' Jack is silent for a split second. 'Run up a flag of truce and roll the guns back in!' he bellows. 'Bloody hurry up, we don't have all day!'  
  
Phoenix gets to the port side of the ship, and calls Matthew's name until she thinks her lungs will burst.  
  
'Faye! Faye are you alright?!' the answering call comes from the Dauntless. 'They're going to pull in closer, so you can come aboard. Are you safe?'  
  
'Yes I'm safe. I'll come aboard as soon as I can.'  
  
'You could probably swing across now if you want, the ships are close enough together.'  
  
Jack is standing behind her, peering across at the Dauntless.  
  
'Yes, I think we could make it.'  
  
'We? That's a navy ship, they'll arrest you.'  
  
'I doubt it.'  
  
He is lost in the activity for a moment, and then returns dragging a rope in each hand. Phoenix looks up, trying to see where they're attached, but her gaze is lost in a tangle of rigging. Jack shoves a rope into her hand.  
  
'Just stand on the side, hang on tight to the rope, and push off really really hard. Got it?'  
  
'Got it,' she says, with more confidence than she feels.  
  
She climbs onto the side, grips the rope until her knuckles turn white, and jumps. A brief moment's flight across the water, which is largely unappreciated by Phoenix since she has her eyes shut, then the terrifying letting go of the rope. She braces herself for the hard wood of the deck, eyes still tightly closed, but instead finds herself colliding with a welcoming embrace.  
  
Phoenix unsticks her lids, and in the instant of reunion she doesn't realise that she is holding Matthew as tightly as if she never wanted to let go. She doesn't realise that he is returning her unyielding embrace with just as much affection, either. Their golden moment is spoiled when Jack lands with a loud thud on the deck beside them, and Matthew jumps back in horror at the sight of him. In a flash, a swarm of recoats surround Jack, swords drawn. Jack simply hauls himself to his feet, and puts up his hands wearily.  
  
'Captain Sparrow. Again. I am arresting you on charges of kidnapping'-  
  
Phoenix gapes at the speaker.  
  
'Rear Admiral Norrington?'  
  
'Miss Harper, I see our search is over when it had barely begun. I am relieved to find you safe, if you have been in the clutches of this vagabond.'  
  
Phoenix still has a sword in her hand, and in a flash its point is tickling Norrington's throat. A second later, five soldiers have their bayonets ready to run Phoenix through. The tension is highlighted by Jack bursting unexpectedly into laughter.  
  
'They made this idiot a Rear Admiral! Can you believe it?'  
  
His deep throaty chuckle echoes around the ship. Phoenix's gaze doesn't shift, and her blade is still ready to split Norrington's windpipe.  
  
'Miss Harper, kindly lower your weapon.'  
  
'This vagabond,' she says levelly, 'is my father. I will not have him insulted by the like of you.'  
  
She watches his eyes widen, and then flick between herself and Jack, before inexplicably alighting on Matthew.  
  
'Men, you may allow Captain Sparrow a little space. Return to your duties.'  
  
He waits until the men have scurried away before continuing to speak whilst studiously ignoring Jack's bow of mock gratitude  
  
'I see this issue is more complicated than it appeared. I suggest you use my cabin to...discuss matters. Any attempt by you or your ship, Captain, to harm any of my crew will be answered with lethal force. In my mind you are still a criminal, but given the special nature of the circumstances I shall give you a certain license.'  
  
'Thank you ever so much,' Jack answers, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  
  
'My cabin is that way,' Norrington says, and turns on his heel to detail a couple of midshipmen to keep watch on the door.  
  
Matthew takes Phoenix's hand.  
  
'I think we really need to talk.'  
  
*** Sorry about the bad ending place, but otherwise the chapter was going to be too long. 23 will be up soon, I promise! Anyway, the thank-yous. Anime-and- Toons, Terriah, sparrows sparrow, flying with da Sparrow and Burning Tyger for saying they should meet again. When bits of plot that people have suggested actually get written I will put credits at the end of those chapters, otherwise all you sneaky people will read the reviews to see what's going to happen, and we can't have that. Savvy? 


	23. Iron eyes

Here we go, continuing on from last chapter's appalling cut-off point. Sorry about that, and I really hope that this chapter will make up for it. Remember – any and all helpful suggestions to do with Fay/Phoenix and Matthew are welcome (and very very necessary!)  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
In Norrington's cabin on the Dauntless, Jack is laid full length on the luxurious sofa, whilst Phoenix sits on the desk and Matthew on the desk's leather chair. Phoenix decides to get straight to the point.  
  
'Matthew, what the hell is going on?'  
  
He looks a little shocked at her swearing, but ignores it.  
  
'Well, everyone was frenetic when they found you gone – it was your aunt who realised you were missing. She worked out where you were, although we only thought you'd gone off to play pirate or something, but we didn't tell the Rear Admiral that. I didn't realise...'  
  
'Yes,' Phoenix says unenthusiastically, 'I am the result of an indiscretion on the part of Captain Sparrow over there.'  
  
'Bloody right, my girl,' Jack concurs.  
  
'Anyway,' Matthew continues, 'Mr Turner persuaded the Rear Admiral to take a ship out to Tortuga to go and find you, and I managed to convince them to take me along too. We weren't supposed to be policing the sea, really, just they saw the Pearl and it was too good an opportunity for them I suppose...'  
  
Phoenix is struck by how much gaunter he looks, and how much older. It's as if the last few weeks have somehow forced him to grow up. Even his eyes seem different – no longer cornflower blue, but a dirty kind of grey.  
  
Jack's voice breaks into her reflections.  
  
'Dear William is aboard? Well, bless my blackened soul I haven't seen the boy for years. Although he's not a boy now I imagine. Where is he?'  
  
'I was coming to that, sir,' Matthew responds curtly. 'He was taken ill three days out of port with some kind of fever. He's in a sort of makeshift hospital on the lower deck. They would have taken him back, but he wouldn't let them. He said they had to find Faye or else his wife would never forgive him for losing her.'  
  
Phoenix smiles a little. Evidently she wasn't so friendless at the Turners' as she'd supposed.  
  
'Well, having rescued the damsel in distress, are you intending to return to Port Royal?'  
  
'Yes,' Matthew answers confidently. 'That was the general idea and I don't see why we shouldn't stick to it.'  
  
Phoenix's jaw drops. 'Excuse me, but the damsel in distress is entitled to her own opinion! I fully intend to stay on the Black Pearl for the foreseeable future, so I can see a very good reason for not following your carefully laid plan.'  
  
'You really want to be a pirate?' Matthew asks, horrified.  
  
'You really want to be a pirate?' Jack asks, overjoyed.  
  
'Yes.'  
  
'Are you sure?' they enquire in unison.  
  
Phoenix wavers. She knows she could die, she knows she'll leave her old life behind irrevocably; she knows the dark side of piracy.  
  
'Maybe...maybe I could stay for a while and...see how it goes?'  
  
Both Jack and Matthew nod sagely, each expecting to pull her around to their own point of view. A knock on the door disturbs their conference, and one of the midshipmen guards edges slowly into the room.  
  
'Mr Turner is asking for you sir,' he says nervously to Jack.  
  
'Well,' Jack says as he gets up off the sofa and heads to the door, 'I shall leave you two alone to discuss...whatever you wish to discuss.'  
  
While he follows the guard out across the deck, and down into the improvised sick bay, he considers what his chances are of keeping his daughter. Plainly the boy was in love with her, but could he seriously expect to win against the ocean?  
  
In the cabin, Matthew and Phoenix sit in silence, hearing nothing but the sound of each other's breathing. After an endless age, Matthew can't stand it.  
  
'Are you really serious? Do you really want to sail with him on the Black Pearl?'  
  
'As serious as a heart attack. I don't know if I'll stay on the Pearl, but...A very wise person once told me that if you would regret not doing something for the rest of your life, then you should just go and do it.'  
  
'You don't know how much I wish I'd never said that.'  
  
The silence returns. Phoenix looks at Matthew while he stares at the floor, and knows in her heart of hearts that she can't leave him again, no matter how wonderful life on the ocean might be. Matthew tries to imagine life without her, and all that he can see is darkness. If she goes away, he might as well be dead.  
  
'I'll come with you.'  
  
'What?!' Phoenix's jaw drops – this is utterly beyond the bounds of the possible.  
  
'Do you honestly think that I would let you go so easily?'  
  
She can see right into his soul through those iron coloured eyes, right into his heart.  
  
'No. I wouldn't want you to.'  
  
A different kind of silence is now between them. Not for lack of words, but because there are too many words to be said.  
  
'Norrington isn't going to like it.' Phoenix points out. 'And I think we should ask my father if you're going to come too.'  
  
Phoenix steps out of the cabin, and demands that they be taken to see Captain Sparrow and Mr Turner. When they arrive in the small room that is serving as a hospital, the two old friends have almost talked themselves out.  
  
In her now typical blunt style, Phoenix does not mince her words.  
  
'Father, Matthew would like to sail with us.'  
  
Jack shrugs. 'I thought he might want to. Can you fight, boy?'  
  
'I taught your daughter.'  
  
'Wait.' It is Will who has spoken, a shrunken figure laying in a tangle of blankets on an aged bed.  
  
'Yes, master?' Matthew answers.  
  
'You want to leave? With him? Be a pirate?' His master's voice is hoarse and shaky.  
  
'As long as Faye wants to, yes.'  
  
Jack smirks – it is just as he thought.  
  
'But Norrington...'  
  
'He doesn't have to know.'  
  
'What about the smithy?'  
  
Matthew hesitates. The scheme is ridiculous, how could he sail with pirates? But he looks at Faye, with her dark hair and red bandanna, and it isn't ridiculous. 'Please let me go master.'  
  
Will remembers through a fevered haze what it was like to be young and in love. How intense, how soft, how beautiful, how agonising.  
  
'Go,' he says simply.  
  
'Thank you sir,' Matthew says, and is echoed by Phoenix, who becomes Faye again for a moment.  
  
'Since all parties are in agreement,' Jack breaks in, 'I think the sooner we go, the better. Goodbye, dear William. These two'll be alright.'  
  
'I doubt it, Jack, but I trust you. Goodbye.'  
  
The ships are still close together, and it is a simple matter of waiting for an opening to grab a convenient piece of loose rigging, and swing across. It is managed with the minimum of fuss, and it is not until the Pearl is actually pulling away that the redcoats wake up. A few rifle shots are fired, but it is too late. Phoenix and Matthew sail off into a new life. For now, at least.  
  
--------  
  
Back in Tortuga, there are many ships docked. On one of these ships, a man sits at a table, pouring over a map of the Caribbean. Behind him, sitting on an unmade bed, a woman is pulling on a shirt.  
  
'Tell me again,' he tells her, with menace in his voice.  
  
'Her name is Phoenix. She is seventeen, eighteen maybe. Long dark hair, brown eyes, lightly tanned skin. She wears a shortened dark dress, boots with a dagger tucked into each one, and a red bandanna.'  
  
'And you're sure she's his daughter?'  
  
'You should have seen them fight. Exactly the same style, exactly the same expression. I didn't know how the other people didn't spot it.'  
  
'If you're wrong, then you know what happens.'  
  
She wants to kill him more that anything, she wants to take her hands, the hands that have to touch him to appease his anger, wrap them around his throat, and squeeze until the life drains out of him.  
  
'You're a bastard, Santos.'  
  
He turns to face her, and flashes her a smile that on any other man would be called charming.  
  
'Ana, Ana, darling, you know I'd never hurt a hair of your pretty little head. It's your illegitimate brat that will suffer.'  
  
Ana lowers her head to hide the tears of shame and rage. Her fists clench. They both know that she is capable of killing him, but they both know the consequences if she disobeys.  
  
'He took her away with him on his ship. They were headed to Port Royal, or at least in that direction.'  
  
'Oh, wonderful. So how many square miles of sea is that to search, Ana?'  
  
'We'll find them. And you'll get what you want.'  
  
'You'd better hope I do.'  
  
She'll have her revenge on him for this. The indignity, the humiliation, the terrible fear every second of every day for her son. God knows, this wretch has it coming to him.  
  
***  
  
A little mystery, anybody? Please review! 


	24. Taken

I really have nothing to say at this point, except sorry for the cliff- hanger. Once again almost everything here belongs to the almighty Mickey Mouse, and thanks to Katrina for letting me ring her up at stupid hours to ask her dumb questions about the movie.  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
'Well, now that there's no need to carry on to Port Royal, I suggest we simply return to our original course.'  
  
'Mexico, sir?'  
  
'That's the one. Go and relay that to the crew, if you would be so kind.'  
  
Archie turns, and hurries out of the cabin.  
  
'Now that we're alone,' Jack says from his position by the window, 'We need to decide what to do with the two of you. Do either of you know how long it takes to sail to Mexico from here?'  
  
A shrug and a blank look from both Phoenix and Matthew.  
  
'From where we are now, given the currents and weather systems we might run into along the way, there and back will take us about a month, including stops for supplies and however long the ship actually spends in port.'  
  
A puzzled look crosses Phoenix's face.  
  
'Why do we need to go to Mexico?'  
  
Jack sighs. 'What do they have in Mexico?'  
  
Matthew speaks up for the first time. 'Gold?'  
  
'Got it in one lad! So, when we get back, if you want to stay then you can stay. If not, then we'll run you back to Port Royal. Savvy?'  
  
Phoenix nods. 'Savvy.'  
  
'Good. I'm glad that's sorted. Now, don't you both have somewhere to be?'  
  
Two faces display blank looks again.  
  
'You should be helping to sail the ship. Go!'  
  
-------  
  
Unlike Phoenix, who spends most of each day in the crow's nest with the telescope, Matthew hasn't yet found a niche on board the Pearl. He is treated as a kind of useful extra, which means a lot of running about doing fifty things at once. When the horizon is bare, Phoenix amuses herself by watching him.  
  
There are as many navy ships as Phoenix can count on one hand out here. Today there haven't been any ships all morning. Any that she does see tend to pass far away, and are no cause for alarm. Most are merchant ships, and ordinarily would have been prime targets, but Jack has made it clear that this trip has one goal, and they are not going to be distracted from it.  
  
Phoenix sits listlessly in the crow's nest, watching the northern horizon. She has come to appreciate the sound of the waves and the calls of the gulls, when there are any. Given her lack of vigilance, it is a little while before she spots the ship coming from the east, creeping up behind them. She takes out her telescope, and examines it. It is not a navy vessel or a merchant ship...On the mainsail there is some kind of design, a red bird of some sort, wings spread. It takes her no time at all to realise that it is following them.  
  
She scrambles down the rigging and into her father's cabin. Inside, Jack is pouring over a map of the Caribbean.  
  
'You could knock you know. It wouldn't kill you,' he tells her as she bursts through the door.  
  
'There's a ship following us. It's not navy, and there's some kind of bird painted on the mainsail.  
  
Jack's face pales beneath his tan. 'Show me.'  
  
She takes him to the stern, where the other ship is just beginning to be visible. Jack peers through her telescope.  
  
Archie and Matthew appear, with mysteriously bad timing.  
  
'Captain'-Archie begins, but is ignored.  
  
'Archie, tell the men to make ready the guns and bring the ship about. The Hawk is after us.'  
  
'Mother of God,' Archie mutters, as he begins to tremble. 'Santos.'  
  
'Go and do it man! Don't just stand there quaking!'  
  
'It's her!' he yelps, pointing a shaking finger at Phoenix. 'My brother always said it was bad luck to have women aboard!'  
  
'Just go!'  
  
Archie scurries away, the terror condensing on his brow.  
  
'He's such an odd man,' Matthew whispers to Phoenix, trying not to disturb Jack for fear of an outburst. 'Why would a ship remind him of his brother?'  
  
'Because,' Jack says, without turning round or taking the telescope from his eye 'the captain of that ship killed his brother in cold blood.'  
  
'What?' Phoenix and Matthew shout in unison, over the rising roar of the crew's activities.  
  
'That captain, Santos'-Jack almost spits the name-'served on this ship. He tried to incite mutiny and failed. Archie's brother, Charlie Gibbs, he tried to fight Santos. He was run through. We marooned the bastard but he escaped. That's a little family history, now will you go and do something useful?!'  
  
Phoenix has never seen her father so agitated. The Hawk is drawing closer and closer now, and the Pearl swings around in preparation for the coming battle. Phoenix is thrown to the deck in the violence of the roll, and finds strong arms hauling her to her feet.  
  
'Do you have weapons?' Matthew shouts, his voice showing his desperate struggle to control his panic.  
  
Phoenix ducks and draws her daggers.  
  
'That won't be enough! Come with me!'  
  
He takes her hand and they run, weaving through the crew, down to the hold. Matthew prises open a crate with a deftness that suggests familiarity, and shoves a sword complete with scabbard and sword belt, into Phoenix' hands.  
  
'Strap this on, and get back on deck. Hurry!'  
  
'How did you know what was in this crate?'  
  
He blushes for a second. 'I've been practising down here every morning.'  
  
'Oh. Just like we used to?'  
  
'Yes,' he says, strapping on a sword of his own. 'Now get back on deck. And Faye, sorry, Phoenix...' he pauses.  
  
'What?'  
  
The kiss comes out of nowhere, and Phoenix is momentarily stunned, as is Matthew by his own daring.  
  
'Just be careful.'  
  
With that he dashes out, and back up into the chaos. Phoenix stands very still for an instant, and then grins stupidly at the wall. She hears the first cannon shot fired from above her, and remembers what she's supposed to be doing.  
  
On deck, it is mayhem. No matter how many times they fire the cannons, they seem to do little or no damage, and the Hawk is still heading straight for them.  
  
'They're going to try and board us! They're going to try and capture the ship!' Archie yells to Jack, who is standing in the middle of the deck, bellowing orders.  
  
'I bloody know that you fool!'  
  
The Hawk is coming ever closer, almost seeming to be dodging the cannon fire. It pulls alongside, its stinking crew stood on the deck, shouting and brandishing their weapons. Phoenix suppresses a shudder, and screeches back with the rest of the Pearl's crew. She yells every curse she can think of, and a few she makes up on the spot. Matthew tries not to let his shock show. This is in her blood after all.  
  
Matthew notices that just on the edge of the mêlée on the other ship, there is a dark woman dressed in men's clothing with a faded bandanna around her head. She is simply staring. Matthew follows her gaze, and finds that its object is Phoenix. He eyes never wander, they stare with a frightening intensity.  
  
Matthew has no more time to wonder about it, as an order is shouted from somewhere on the other ship and suddenly there is an onslaught of stinking pirates swinging across and coming right for him. He draws his sword, and hopes they're all very bad at fighting.  
  
As Phoenix sees them coming across, something else in her takes over. Her sword is out, and something deep and dark in her is making all the decisions. A short blonde man lands in front of her, and in the split second of his stumble without thinking Phoenix pushes her blade straight through his stomach and out the other side. He falls to the deck, his blood making the wood turn red. He looks at her just before he dies with utter disbelief, and for the first time in her life Phoenix watches the soul drain out of a person.  
  
As she pulls her sword out of him with a sickening squelch, and sees the blood running down it, she understands what she has done. She has killed someone, this man, is dead by her own hand. She is horror struck for an everlasting instant, but into her field of vision comes another one of the Hawk's crew, bearing down on her fast.  
  
Phoenix holds her bloodied sword ready, but something hits her very hard on the head from behind, and she knows no more of the battle. Matthew is locked in a fight with a dark and swarthy Greek, whose eyes suddenly glaze over and who falls to one side, revealing Jack standing behind him.  
  
'Thought you needed some help lad.'  
  
'Don't worry about me, where's Phoenix?'  
  
'Last time I saw her she was buried up to the hilt in someone...'  
  
Matthew looks around hurriedly, just in time to see Phoenix unconscious, being laid at the dark woman's feet over on the Hawk.  
  
'My God, Captain, look!'  
  
Jack looks, and it is all Matthew can do to stop him trying to throw himself over to the Hawk. Matthew hears the dark woman shriek an order for the crew to return, and in a flash the deck is empty of the Hawk's crew, and the ship itself is pulling away.  
  
The deck is red with the blood of the dead and dying. There are maybe five or six dead from the other crew, and these are pitched overboard by the survivors from the Pearl. Among the Pearl's dead are Archie, his throat cut, the cook, a large fat man called Runt for some reason, and two of the deckhands.  
  
There are also a number of injuries, but none of them serious. Jack half heartedly oversees the setting up of a 'hospital' under the guidance of one of the crew who, in a former life, was a navy surgeon. Matthew simply collapses beside one of the cannons, unable to move or even think.  
  
'She's gone,' he says to himself, over and over. Then, for a strange fleeting time that seems to last at once eternity and the blink of an eye, he sees himself from above. Curled between two guns, his pathetic crumpled form, utterly useless. Phoenix kidnapped or captured, and him just sitting moping and being weak. He picks himself up, and goes to rescue the woman he loves.  
  
***  
  
Yay! Rescuing! Nothing like a good rescue mission. Please review for me, I'll be good and write more chapters! 


	25. Just you wait

Drama! Tension! Phoenix kidnapped! Arg!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
'Why didn't you just take the ship when you had the chance?'  
  
Santos ignores her, and tickles the small dark skinned boy under the chin.  
  
'The Black Pearl could be yours now! Are you mad?'  
  
Santos gets to his feet.  
  
'I'm not mad. It's not just the Pearl I want.'  
  
'What else is there?'  
  
Santos's eyes narrow.  
  
'I want Jack Sparrow on his knees, begging for his life. I want him to watch his daughter die. I want to see his face when he knows what you've done.'  
  
His words make Anamaria's blood run cold. This man is the purest evil; the stuff of nightmares.  
  
'What have I done?'  
  
'You betrayed him to me for a ship, Ana. This ship.'  
  
'I had no choice,' she whispers, her voice barely audible.  
  
He moves towards her, full of malice.  
  
'You sold yourself to me for a ship, you gave him to me on a platter, and you put your son's life in danger, all for a ship.'  
  
'I had no choice! You took my son, you threatened to kill him, I didn't want to do any of it you bastard!'  
  
She raises her hand and makes to hit him, but he catches her hand before the blow connects.  
  
'Be careful, Ana. You wouldn't want any harm to come to the little one now, would you?'  
  
He is too close; she can feel his hot foul breath on her face. She has to fight down the disgust she feels for this vile, despicable Spaniard, but he can sense it in her. She hears a giggle, and on the rug in the corner her son is playing with his toes. He looks up at her, a big smile on his face.  
  
'Mama, look!' he says, and giggles more.  
  
She feels a rush of love for him, and sheer loathing and hatred for Santos, who has destroyed her. She would like nothing more than to see his plot fail, but her fear for her son prevents her from taking any action.  
  
'Why don't you go and see to Miss Sparrow? I'll take care of little James here.'  
  
Ana wants to spit in his face, but she does as she is told.  
  
------  
  
Phoenix is slowly returning to consciousness. She has been tied to a chair in an empty storeroom, which is bare except for a table, with both of her long daggers on it, and a very large man leaning on the door. He never takes his eyes off of her, and she is beginning to find it rather unnerving.  
  
There is a knock at the door, and the giant opens it, cautiously. A dark woman who looks oddly familiar steps inside.  
  
'Get out,' she says to the giant, and he hurriedly makes his exit, closing the door behind him.  
  
The woman meanders over to the table, and picks up one of Phoenix's daggers, examining it.  
  
'This is very good workmanship, Phoenix. You have good taste in weaponry.'  
  
Phoenix doesn't know what to say, so she says nothing.  
  
'I saw you the night you fought with your father at Scarlet's,' she continues. 'I'd been there before, and I thought you were familiar, but I didn't realise until that night exactly what was so recognisable about you. You're very good with these,' she says, indicating the daggers. 'Jack must be very proud.'  
  
Phoenix registers the woman's use of her father's first name.  
  
'Who are you and what do you want with me?'  
  
'My name is Anamaria. I don't want anything with you, but Captain Santos has some very interesting plans for you. Your father is going to give Santos the Pearl in exchange for you.'  
  
'What's in it for you?'  
  
Anamaria smiles broadly, although the smile is fake. 'I get this ship, naturally. I did have one of my own years ago, but it was stolen by the inestimable Captain Sparrow. This is...payback.'  
  
'Isn't that rather petty?'  
  
In one smooth step Anamaria is in front of Phoenix, with Phoenix's cheek stinging from the blow she has just delivered.  
  
'In your position, it would be unwise to annoy me. Just sit tight and be a good girl, and you'll be back home before you know it. If you're not a good girl, then you can expect a trip to the ocean floor. Is that clear?'  
  
Phoenix nods, wishing her hands were free.  
  
'Good.'  
  
She spins around, and leaves the room. The guard is standing in the corridor, and she motions for him to go back to Phoenix.  
  
Anamaria leans against the wall outside. That girl reminds her of her when she was young, full of fire and certain of her path in life. Just you wait, Anamaria thinks to herself, just you wait until some dog with a grudge against the man you love steals your son away and uses him to blackmail you. Then see where all your certainty goes.  
  
***  
  
I know this is a shorter chapter, but trust me, there is a higher plan! Plus it's late and I'm tired and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard....zzzzzzzz..... 


	26. Your woman

I've realised how unenthusiastic I've been in thanking all you lovely reviewers, so today I'm going to make that right. I checked my emails today and found a VAST number of reviews, and spent half an hour with a massive grin on my face. It's so great to be appreciated! So to everyone who reviews my story (well, actually it's mine and Katrina's) THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
It is the time of day when sunset is slowly turning into twilight. Both ships are anchored by a small rocky islet. Close enough to keep an eye on each other, but far enough to be out of cannon range. Matthew is sitting in the crow's nest, listlessly watching the Hawk, when he notices something odd. He peers through the telescope, and sees that yes, the Hawk is sending out a boat. Just one boat, with just one passenger. He scrambles down the rigging to tell the crew.  
  
Ten minutes later, he hammers on the door of Jack's cabin.  
  
'Captain, you're needed on deck. It's urgent.'  
  
Once on deck, Matthew tries to explain what the person in the boat has shouted to them from the position halfway between the two ships.  
  
'They want to discuss Phoenix's return, but they want you to go out unarmed to negotiate.' He tries to hide the agitation in his voice, but fails.  
  
'Lower a boat,' Jack orders.  
  
He takes off enough weaponry to equip a small army, and hands it all to Matthew who totters slightly under the weight. Wordlessly, and ignoring his crew's muttered misgivings, he jumps into the rowboat and goes to meet the Hawk's representative.  
  
He knows who it is; he knew when he saw Phoenix laid at her feet during the battle. Jack is at a loss to know why she would be working for Santos, but he intends to find out. As his boat draws closer to hers, he looks over his shoulder, straight at her. A rush of memories hits him like a fist in the stomach. The day they met when he stole her ship, meeting her again on the pier in Tortuga, too many drinks in a dingy bar in Havana years later, a beach under the stars, a thousand nights in his cabin listening to her breath while she slept...  
  
The two boats are alongside now. It feels like they're alone, but he knows they are being watched from both ships.  
  
'Ana...'  
  
At this moment, she wants nothing more that to break down and tell him everything, but James's life is at stake. Better this man, this pirate, than her innocent child.  
  
He tone is deliberately cold. 'If you wish to see your daughter alive again, then you will hand over command of your ship to Captain Santos. You have twenty-four hours to decide, after which your daughter will be bound hands and feet and given to the sea. That's all.'  
  
'Ana, love, what is this? Why did you disappear? Are you working for Santos?'  
  
'I haven't been your love for at least four years Jack, and you're too curious for your own good. Just do as he says. She's got potential, your girl. She could be great.'  
  
'Then get her back to me.'  
  
'I can't. I'm sorry. I'll be back this time tomorrow– I know you'll make the right decision.'  
  
As she rows back, keeping her eyes on Jack, she feels the hot tears of shame and hurt on her cheeks. Hurriedly, she wipes then away. If Santos were to question her loyalty it would be fatal. Knowing that she has just signed both this man and his daughter's death warrant is almost more than she can bear, but the life of her son is more important. Their deaths, she tells herself, are a necessary evil.  
  
Matthew's reaction to the terms of Phoenix's return is much more violent that Jack could ever have predicted. Secretly he had always thought the lad rather spineless, but it seems that the threat of harm to Phoenix has brought out the fire in him.  
  
'We need to launch an attack. Under cover of night perhaps. We could just seize the ship with barely anyone awake!'  
  
Such a shame, though, that the boy doesn't know who he's dealing with.  
  
'Son,' Jack explains calmly, 'Santos will have someone with her at all times. If we so much as budge an inch, she will be killed instantly. It was a good plan, but unfortunately it would not be at all healthy for your woman.'  
  
Matthew blushes at this, but says nothing, and the two lapse into a rum- soaked silence – Jack drinking the stuff as if it was water, Matthew sipping it and simply wishing that it was.  
  
------  
  
Santos is waiting for her, standing in the middle of his cabin. He says nothing, simply stands in front of her, too close for comfort, scrutinising her face. She shudders inwardly, wondering if he can see right into her head and see the writhing worm of hatred hidden there.  
  
James is curled up on the floor, sucking his thumb. He is almost asleep, but not quite. She can at least be thankful that Santos didn't kill him while she was gone.  
  
Santos finishes his minute examination of her features, and she can see from the look in his eyes what's going to happen now. He has seen something he doesn't like, maybe the too-bright eyes that tears have fallen from so recently.  
  
She doesn't flinch, but even though she is expecting it the blow still knocks her to the floor, with the thump of his fist reverberating along her jawbone. Anamaria looks up at him from her prone position, defiance radiating from her. Another smash to her head doesn't diminish it, and Santos gets angrier.  
  
'Don't think I don't know about you,' Santos hisses. 'I know, you whore, I know everything.'  
  
Anamaria's mind races. What can he know?  
  
'I know you love him; I know every damn night you wish I was him. I'd kill you now if I didn't want to see him know about your betrayal.'  
  
Her eyes flicker protectively over her son – please let him be spared from this sight. But James is watching, open mouthed, with the makings of a crying fit brewing in him.  
  
Santos notices her glance.  
  
'You don't care what happens to you, Ana. You're tough, you're strong. But look at him, so innocent and so trusting. So easily broken...'  
  
She watches in horror as he approaches her son. She gets to her feet, ready to kill him or die in the attempt if he hurts James. But all his does is gently run his hand over the boy's black hair.  
  
'Remember, Ana, how easily he could be broken. Remember that. Now take your stinking brat and get the hell out of my sight.'  
  
As fast as she dares, Anamaria gets out of the door with James in her arms and her jaw still throbbing from the unexpected blow. She takes James down to his den, where he sleeps on a pile of blankets under the guard of one of Santos's mercenaries. At the first sign of disobedience from her, then James's life is taken by the creature who watches over him. Simple.  
  
Afterwards, Anamaria wanders, hardly knowing where she's going. By strange chance, her feet trace the path down to the room where Phoenix is being held. She stops outside the door, and touches her jawbone gingerly. It pounds under her touch, and she winces. She thinks about her son, asleep on his blankets, and the degenerate monster on whom his fate rests.  
  
Anamaria considers the girl on the other side of the door, the girl with the sea in her blood and fire in her heart. If Phoenix knew the truth, all of the truth, then maybe Anamaria could save her son and wreak revenge on Santos. All she needs is the right leverage...  
  
***  
  
Yet another cliff hanger! I bet some of you can see what's coming...but you're wrong. Mwahahahaha! 


	27. Escape

Action coming up!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Phoenix is jerked awake from a half-sleep by Anamaria storming her way into the make-shift prison.  
  
'Get out!' she shouts at the guard, who makes a hurried exit.  
  
'Why couldn't you have put me in the brig, at least then there would have been rats to talk to,' Phoenix complains fuzzily, 'not that giant who just stares the whole time. Oh no, you're not going to hit me again are you?'  
  
'Look at me,' Anamaria orders, in a voice that brooks no argument.  
  
Phoenix looks, and gasps in shock. Her nose is bleeding, her lip is split, and she's starting to show signs of bruising down the left side of her face.  
  
'I am not going to hit you again, I promise you that.'  
  
She takes up one of Phoenix's daggers from the table, and Phoenix's eyes grow wide.  
  
'Are you going to kill me?'  
  
Anamaria doesn't respond, and steps around behind Phoenix's chair. Phoenix closes her eyes tight, and waits for the slice across her throat. It doesn't come, and she feels the ropes around her hands slipping to the floor.  
  
'What are you doing?' she asks, rubbing her wrists as Anamaria steps back into view and begins work on cutting the ropes that bind her feet.  
  
'I'm letting you out, isn't it rather obvious?' she replies and Phoenix kicks the ropes off her ankles.  
  
She hands both daggers back to Phoenix, who tucks them into her boots warily.  
  
'Is this some kind of trick?'  
  
'No, it isn't. Listen, we don't have much time. Santos, the captain, he did this to me. It isn't the first time either, but now I have a way out and I need your help.'  
  
Phoenix is confused, but is determined not to show it. She takes refuse in suspicion.  
  
'Why should I trust you an inch?'  
  
'You have absolutely no reason to trust me or do anything for me at all. But if you only believe one thing then believe this. I need you to get my son off this ship. If we escape, and I leave him behind, Santos will kill him.' Phoenix shrugs. 'Why can't he look after himself?'  
  
'He's three years old.'  
  
'Oh.' Phoenix looks down at her feet, feeling foolish. 'I still don't see why I should help you.'  
  
'I'm not asking you to help me, I'm asking you to help him.'  
  
'Well, I know he's only a child, but really I don't' –  
  
Anamaria cuts her short. 'He's your brother.'  
  
Phoenix's jaw hits the floor. 'My what?!'  
  
'You can ask questions later. Will you help him?'  
  
Phoenix's brain tells her her chances of escape will be less if she has a child with her, but every other instinct calls out to her to do the right thing.  
  
'Yes, I'll help him. Tell me what to do.'  
  
'You take care of your captor, and we can go and get my son. You take him, and go to the starboard side where there should be a rowboat. I'll deal with anyone that gets in our way. Then all we have to do is get to the Pearl.'  
  
'You make it sound so simple.'  
  
Anamaria smiles, her split lip zinging with pain as she does so.  
  
'It is.'  
  
Phoenix takes a deep, slow breath.  
  
'Shall we go, then?'  
  
Anamaria nods. Phoenix pulls her daggers out of her boots, and spins them in her fingers. Suddenly, she feels much more herself again.  
  
Anamaria opens the door, and steps out. Phoenix hears her walk down the passage, and being to climb up to the deck. Now or never, she tells herself.  
  
She darts out of the door, and finds her leviathan jailer blocking the pathway. He reaches for her as if to crush her, but she finds her right arm arching upwards, and she feels a warm river of blood running down her dagger and over her hand. She pulls her dagger out as the jailer falls forward. Phoenix jumps over him and runs down the passage.  
  
The second man she's killed, she thinks. Funny how it gets easier...she feels the urge to be sick somewhere as the stench of that man's blood fills her nostrils, but fights down the impulse and keeps running.  
  
She is on deck now, following Anamaria, then down again and into the tiniest of rooms. So far, they have seen no one. In the room, there is a small red-headed man cleaning a pistol with an old rag.  
  
'Take him,' Anamaria says to Phoenix, indicating the sleeping form on the pile of covers.  
  
The red-headed man jumps up and makes to draw his sword, but Anamaria's well-placed fist knocks him unconscious. Phoenix follows Anamaria to the starboard side of the boat, trying simultaneously not to wake the boy and not to cover him with clotting blood.  
  
Anamaria vaults gracefully over the side and down into the rowboat. Phoenix leans down as far as she can and passes the precious bundle to Anamaria. James snuffles slightly, and turns in his sleep. Phoenix leaps into the boat, which wobbles dangerously.  
  
'Have you ever rowed one of these before?' Anamaria asks.  
  
'No, never.'  
  
Anamaria gives an exasperated sigh, and hands the snuffler to Phoenix. She takes one oar in each hand, and facing backwards, begins to row towards the Pearl. The cold night air cleans away the stench of the blood, and Phoenix trails one hand in the water, trying desperately to wash off the death.  
  
The journey seems to take hours, although it is mere minutes. Every second Phoenix expects to hear cannons firing, but no cannon fire can be heard. As their tiny craft bumps alongside the Pearl, Anamaria takes possession of her son again.  
  
'Call someone,' she tells Phoenix. 'Go on, call someone.'  
  
'Hello!' Phoenix shouts. 'Hello? Anyone, it's Phoenix, I'm back!'  
  
There is the sound of footsteps, and Matthew's head appears over the side.  
  
'Phoenix! Who's that with you?'  
  
'I'll explain later, get my father out here, and throw us some ropes!'  
  
Matthew disappears for a moment, and a rope appears over the side of the ship, accompanied by yells of 'Captain! Captain!'. Anamaria motions for Phoenix to go first, so she does, scrambling up it like a monkey.  
  
When she gets her feet on the familiar decking, she reaches down as far as she can as Anamaria reaches up and hands Phoenix's half-brother over. As his mother hauls herself up, Phoenix studies the boy as much as she can by the starlight. He looks very much like herself, she thinks, and she feels a sudden rush of love for this tiny stranger in her arms. In spite of the night's events, she smiles.  
  
'Phoenix!'  
  
It's Jack, striding out of his cabin with Matthew on his heels.  
  
'I knew you'd...' he stops dead, and it is all Matthew can do not to crash into him.  
  
'Ana.'  
  
'I got her back to you, Jack.'  
  
James begins to snuffle again, and wriggles slightly against Phoenix's embrace.  
  
'Jack,' Anamaria says, gently taking James from Phoenix, 'I brought someone else back too.'  
  
***  
  
Cliffs ahoy! 


	28. The final battle

My A/Ns are really very dull and pointless, and you really don't need much of an introduction, so hey, just read on!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
She sits on the floor in her tiny dirty box of a room. James is asleep in her hammock, and she is watching him idly, her eyelids drooping. She half- wonders what Anamaria is saying to her father, but is cut off in mid thought by her door creaking open.  
  
The air movement makes the solitary candle flicker, casting her visitor in a slightly spectral light.  
  
'Can we talk?'  
  
She nods, and gets to her feet. They walk solemnly up to the deck, and stand on one side away from the lone guard. The Hawk is just visible by the moon and starlight, but she tries to avoid looking at it.  
  
'Phoenix,' he begins, but she cuts him off.  
  
'Please don't call me that. It's not my name; I just wanted a new self for a new life. I don't know if I want this life anymore.'  
  
She can hear Matthew's surprise. 'But this is the life you always wanted, why...?'  
  
'Since when did anyone ever really know what they want?'  
  
'I know what I want.'  
  
She turns to look up at him, more than a little surprised at his new forceful tone.  
  
'I want you. Faye, Phoenix, I don't care. I love you, and whatever life you choose, if you want me to go with you then I will.'  
  
The kiss lasts for an eternal moment. All pretence gone, all forced courage, all brittle strength disappears in a heartbeat. She is someone new, not a serving girl or a juvenile murderess, but a woman with something to protect. When it ends, she pulls back a little and looks him into his eyes.  
  
'I have this feeling that now I should say that I know what I want too. I really don't, but I think I have a much better idea.'  
  
Shared laughter reaches out into the night air, floating up to the stars.  
  
------  
  
Mere feet away, there is no laughter. Jack and Anamaria sit in silence over two heavy mugs of rum.  
  
'Why didn't you ever tell me?'  
  
Anamaria sighs. 'What would I have said?'  
  
'You could have said something, and not just gone without a word.'  
  
'It was the best thing to do, don't you see?'  
  
'No! No I don't see! Why don't you tell me?'  
  
'Alright I'll tell you. I couldn't stay at sea while I was pregnant; I couldn't have my baby out in the middle of the ocean. As soon as I knew I left. Maybe I shouldn't have sneaked away like I did' –  
  
'You left me asleep when we were docked in Trinidad. There is no maybe about it, love; you definitely shouldn't have sneaked away like that. And you took a hefty load of loot with you.'  
  
'Fine, fine, I was wrong there. I stayed on the island, I had James there, and I lived off what I took from you. I ran into Santos there, all bitter and twisted and wanting revenge. He found out James was your son, and he took him away. This was about two years ago I think, and he's been blackmailing me ever since to find a way to get to you and take the Pearl.'  
  
'You should have just killed him.'  
  
'His crew would have killed my son, and then me. I couldn't let that happen, even if it meant sacrificing you.'  
  
'He could have taken the Pearl before. Why didn't he?'  
  
'He wants you as well. He wants to see you beg before you die, and he wants you to see Phoenix die too. He also wanted you to know how I'd betrayed you, but I've already told you that.'  
  
'You didn't really betray me. You did it to protect your son.'  
  
For the first time, Anamaria actually meets his gaze. Jack realises how much she's gone through over the last two years, and how much she must want Santos dead.  
  
'He's our son, Jack. Santos will come tomorrow when he finds out what's happened. He'll attack and he'll be after you, me, and your children. Let's just leave now while we still can.'  
  
'No, if we leave he'll follow. We'll have to face him sometime and it may as well be when we're prepared for it. I know what I'm up against, love.'  
  
She lays her hand on his, and the memories associated with her touch send shivers up his spine.  
  
'Do you remember Havana?'  
  
Jack grins.  
  
-------  
  
As night slowly recedes and turns into the grey false-dawn light, the crew is already up. The ship is a hive of activity, with everyone doing something to prepare for the ensuing battle. The Hawk is already beginning to move towards them, so a pre-emptive strike is out of the question.  
  
All hands are on deck, except Faye. No one is calling her Phoenix anymore, and it was a lesson quickly learned. Some of the men met her in Tortuga, and have related their experience to the more fortunate members of the crew, so even her empty threats carry a certain weight.  
  
Faye is in her tiny room, with James who is finally awake. He seems utterly unfazed by his change of location and this new person who is taking care of him, which is good. Faye doesn't need a crying child to care for. She almost wishes he'd go back to sleep. He slept all through his rescue, so why not a few more hours?  
  
Her heart is in her mouth now. Matthew is on deck, and she wants to be up there too, making sure nothing happens so him, protecting him. But, on her father's orders, she is to stay and protect her brother instead. There is no one else he trusts well enough except Anamaria, and she is needed too much. Faye is burning to know how Jack and Anamaria came to have a child in the first place, but the thought fly out of her mind as she hears the cannon fire and the first shouts of the battle over her head.  
  
James's bottom lip begins to tremble, and his eyes fill with tears at the sounds. Faye holds him tightly, rocking him to and fro and crooning softly under her breath to him. The roar of the battle is terrifying, and all the worse because she feels so helpless. All Faye can do is hope that they remain undiscovered, or Jack might lose both his children.  
  
She can hear two voices giving orders; one is their father, and one is deeper, with a harsh accent that she doesn't recognise although she knows who it must be. Santos, the man who is after their blood. And it is getting closer.  
  
Faye lifts James up, and hides him behind some crates in the corner, taking down the hammock and sitting him on it.  
  
'Please don't cry James, please don't cry. Just sit tight for a moment and everything will be alright.'  
  
He nods, and tearfully plugs his thumb into his mouth. Faye spins around as the thud of a body falling down the stairs reaches her ears. Doors open and close, until the only door left is the door in front of Faye. She pulls the daggers out of her boots, and waits.  
  
It slams open, the noise making Faye's ears ring. There he stands, shorter than she expected.  
  
'Phoenix Sparrow I presume,' he snarls. 'Very...ornithological, isn't it?'  
  
His bloodied sword and her daggers clash hard, and she can hear James's stifled sobs behind her.  
  
'So you have the brat here too do you? How wonderfully time saving for me.' Santos breathes into her face.  
  
The fight is gruelling, and Faye is slashed many times, her clothing ripped and bloodstained. Occasionally she gets her own back and Santos will have scars to remember her by. But, for all her strength and all her skill, Santos has the advantage of weight, height and experience. It is not long before Faye is on her back with both her daggers kicked out of reach. She tries vainly to get up, but the point of a sword is at her throat too soon. She squeezes her eyes shut, and waits for darkness.  
  
'It was a pleasure meeting you, Faye. I wish your father could be here to see this, but I'-  
  
He stops, and Faye dares to open her eyes. The look on Santos's face is one of sheer shock. Faye looks down; following his eyes, and sees the sword blade is sticking out of his chest. His eyes glaze, and he is no longer looking at anything in this world. The blade is withdrawn, and Santos's corpse begins to fall forward. Faye has the presence of mind to roll to one side so she isn't crushed.  
  
In the doorway, with blood rusted sword in hand is a sweaty, filthy, extremely dishevelled Matthew. And to think I was worried about protecting him, Faye says to herself.  
  
'I thought I might lend a hand,' he tells her, as he helps her to her feet.  
  
'Wonderful timing.'  
  
Faye goes to pick up James, and winces at the pain of her various wounds.  
  
'Let me take him. You need to get to the surgeon I think.'  
  
There is silence, true silence. The battle is over.  
  
'Did we win?' she asks through the haze of her small agonies.  
  
Matthew grins and he balances James on one hip and holds Faye up with the other arm.  
  
'Did we ever.'  
  
***  
  
Please review, it would make me all smiley and write more chapters! 


	29. Goodbyes

Here we go, father-daughter bonding. And again, I don't own anything! *sob*  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Jack stands alone at the helm, guiding the ship through the still water. It is another midnight, the same day of the battle. After the death of their captain, the crew of the Hawk were only too keen to surrender, and he simply gave them their ship back and pitched Santos's body into the deep. His actions were not well received, another ship would have been a wonderful thing, but he knows not to wreak havoc on a crew for the deeds of their captain.  
  
Faye is restless. James is still sleeping on her hammock, so she curls up as best she can in a blanket, but there are too many images in her head and too many questions. Finally, she can stand it no more and goes up on deck. The first thing she sees as she steps out into the starlight is the silhouette of her father outlined against the inky sky. He is staring at the horizon, and his mind is elsewhere.  
  
Faye makes her way up to stand by him, and they remain there in a comfortable silence as the Pearl glides on into the dark, towards Port Royal.  
  
'I need to know something.'  
  
He looks at her as if seeing her for the first time. 'Yes?'  
  
'What happened with you and Anamaria? You don't have to tell me, but I'd really like to know.'  
  
'If I don't tell you, you're going to be unbearable aren't you.'  
  
'Absolutely.'  
  
Faye glances up at him, expectantly.  
  
'Go on, I'm all ears.'  
  
'I met her when I stole her ship eighteen years ago.'  
  
Faye blinks with astonishment.  
  
'You knew her before my mother?'  
  
'Yes, but not in the way you might be thinking. The next time I saw her was eight years later when she joined my crew to rescue your Miss Elizabeth. We sailed together on the Pearl for four years. When she knew she was pregnant, she left and unfortunately fell into the clutches of Santos who used James to blackmail her.'  
  
'And that's it?'  
  
Jack nods solemnly. 'That's it. I didn't know about James until she brought him on board yesterday.' 'You're taking it very well.'  
  
'I've had practise.'  
  
The slight slurring in his voice suggests to Faye that he might not be entirely sober. She steps a little closer to him, and catches the slight smell of rum on his breath. Evidently he's not taking it as well as she thought.  
  
'Are you in love with her?'  
  
'What, Anamaria? No, not in love. Sort of a mixture of friendship and convenience, really.' His tone is relatively jovial, but then suddenly takes a melancholy turn. 'She's not like your mother.'  
  
Faye says nothing; she has learned where to leave silences for the other person to fill them.  
  
'I miss her every day, even now. Looking at you reminds me so much of her – it's just something in your eyes and your voice. Everyone can see how much you're like me, but I don't reckon there are many who could see the resemblance between you and her.'  
  
Faye leans in and puts both arms around his neck.  
  
'Thank you.'  
  
'What for?' he says, putting one arm around her waist.  
  
'When I left Port Royal, I had an aunt and that was all. Now I have a father, a brother, and I feel like I've actually lived. Thank you so much.'  
  
His grip on her tightens, and she fights down the girlish desire to burst into tears.  
  
'You don't have to go back you know. You can stay here, sail with me, be a pirate! Why not, it's in your blood. You'll be happy out on the sea, I promise.'  
  
Faye pulls away from him, shaking her head.  
  
'I'm sorry, I really am, but I can't do this. I've taken the lives of two people when I might somehow have been able to avoid it, I've nearly been killed myself, and I've had to worry about the people I love being in mortal danger. Not to mention the fact that one day I might find myself swinging gently in the breeze. I need to go home; I need to have a normal life.'  
  
'You want to go back to sweeping floors and washing dishes?'  
  
She shrugs. 'That's what my normal life is.'  
  
Jack sighs deeply, and turns his gaze back to the unchanging horizon.  
  
'I could have shown you the world, Phoenix. We could have been the scourge of the seas, we could have been rich.'  
  
'Father,' she says, ever so gently, 'my name is Faye. I'm a maid, not a pirate. The only things I could ever be the scourge of are dust and dirt.'  
  
'If this is what you want, love, then so be it.'  
  
--------  
  
After many days at sea, finally the island is in sight. Faye is almost home, it is so close she can almost taste the familiar air. She is in her tiny room, putting her few possessions into her battered case that she stole so short and long a time ago from the Turners' attic.  
  
There is a knock at her door, which elicits a call of 'Come in!' She had been expecting Jack, but it is Matthew instead. As soon as she sees his face, she knows that something is wrong, but before she can even start to speak he has cut her off.  
  
'I'm not going ashore with you, Faye. I'm going to stay here. I've already got the captain's permission. '  
  
Faye is unsure what to think about first. A life without him? Doesn't he love her? He wants to be a pirate? All of these ideas hit at once, producing total meltdown.  
  
'Wha...?'  
  
'I've lived so much in the last few weeks, I can't imagine ever going back to just being an apprentice. I want you to stay too, Faye. Please, stay here with me.'  
  
Faye has never been so astounded in her life.  
  
'And never see my aunt and uncle again? Never see the children? I can't leave Port Royal forever, I thought I could, I thought it was what I had to do, like some kind of quest to find my father. But I acted so stupidly I can't believe it now. I need to go home Matthew. Try to understand.'  
  
There is a deafening silence for a solitary aching minute. The anger and irritation in her voice hurts him more than he allows to show.  
  
'Well, I suppose that's it then. Goodbye, Faye.'  
  
He is gone as soon as he arrived, closing the door carefully behind him. Faye climbs into her hammock, and lets the stifled tears fall.  
  
-------  
  
'Wha...?'  
  
'I'm sorry Jack,' Anamaria tells him, holding James firmly by the hand, 'but I can't bring up my son on a pirate ship. It's too dangerous.' 'But you can't stay in Port Royal! What would you do? Where would you stay?'  
  
'I used to have a good hand with a hammer, back before I sailed under the black flag. If, like you say, Matthew intends to remain aboard, then Will might be needing someone else.'  
  
Jack's mouth opens and closes like a carp. Secretly, Anamaria enjoys seeing him dumbfounded. It doesn't happen often.  
  
'You were a whore before you were a pirate!'  
  
She shrugs. 'What can I say? I'm multi-talented.'  
  
Anamaria stoops, and picks up a shabby bag with the hand that isn't holding James.  
  
'When will you be leaving port again?'  
  
'Probably before six.' His usual confidence is beginning to return. 'It leaves you plenty of time to change your mind.'  
  
'I won't be changing my mind. Just in case I've left anything, I want to know how long I have to pick it up.'  
  
She heads towards the door, towing James behind her.  
  
'Goodbye, Jack.'  
  
James waves, grinning happily, as his mother pulls him towards to prow. Faye is already there, case in hand, watching the ship come nearer and nearer to her home.  
  
'Are you coming too, then?' she asks, noting Anamaria's bag.  
  
'Yes we are. Do you think you could have us to stay for a while?'  
  
'What are you going to do in Port Royal?'  
  
'I was a blacksmith once. I understand that there'll be a position vacant, so I can be one again.' She pauses. 'Just in case you need to know, the ship is leaving at six this evening.'  
  
For her pains, Anamaria is met with an icy glare.  
  
'Why would I need to know that?'  
  
'No reason at all.'  
  
They stand there, untroubled by their men, and watch as the ship docks with all the associated activity that that brings, and as the plank is put down. As her feet touch the sand of Port Royal for the first time in so long, Faye resists the urge to look back. There is nothing to look back to, she tells herself, only things to look forward to.  
  
***  
  
That's really sad...oh no...need more Kleenex! 


	30. Matthew

EEK!  
  
***  
  
A Hard Man To Predict  
  
Faye leads Anamaria and James through the streets of Port Royal, burning under the midday sun, and all the way up to the Turners' house. James begins to whine to be carried, so the two women take it in turns. Other than what is necessary, the two women do not speak.  
  
Faye automatically goes to the servants' entrance, and rings the bell. After a moment or two, Susie opens the door. Faye watches as she registers the woman in a man's outfit with a small child on her hip and the younger woman with the battered case, the shortened dress, the bandanna and the boots. Recognition takes a fraction longer than it should have done, before Susie rushes forward and hugs Faye so tightly that Faye begins to worry about suffocation.  
  
She drops her case and returns the hug warmly, unable to make out the words under Susie's tear-stained babble.  
  
'Susie, please, can we come in?'  
  
Susie steps back, still chattering, and takes them through to the kitchen.  
  
'Oh, Faye, we were so worried about you just disappearing like that, and when the master came back from his search all fevered and said that you an that apprentice of his had gone off with Jack Sparrow I was almost beside myself, I thought I'd never see you again and...'  
  
Susie tails off, looking at Anamaria and James. James is half asleep now, and Anamaria seems very awkward.  
  
'Who's your friend? And who is this little boy?' Susie asks, unable to contain the smile at the sight of a sleeping child despite her suspicions of the stranger.  
  
'This is Anamaria. Please could you see if one of the Turners could come down because there are some things that need to be discussed.'  
  
She blinks at the new calm authority with which her niece speaks, but goes anyway, thinking that Faye needs to be allowed some license after what she's gone through.  
  
'What needs to be discussed?' Anamaria asks Faye in Susie's temporary absence.  
  
'Your stay and your job. I won't have my brother out on the streets, and I won't have you suffering for your choice. You're family.'  
  
For the first time, Anamaria smiles broadly at Faye, and the smile is returned wholeheartedly.  
  
In the end, both Stannard and the master and lady of the house rush down to their kitchen, and greet Faye with a relief so sincere Faye can hardly believe that she was so missed.  
  
Anamaria is greeted with all the joy of an old friend, and in true style, James barely stirs from his doze. As the welcome subsides into the need for answers, Faye takes it upon herself to stop all awkward questions.  
  
'Mr Turner,' she says, turning to her employer, 'Matthew will not be coming back to work for you. He has decided to remain on the Pearl.'  
  
'What? Why?' Will is clearly extremely confused at the turnaround in his cautious apprentice's character. 'I can't run the smithy on my own! How will I'-  
  
'I will take his job,' Anamaria tells him. 'I want to make a life her for me and my son.'  
  
'It would be good if she could stay here while she finds her feet?'  
  
Faye tries to make it sound like a request and not a necessity. She is also wary of speaking for Anamaria as she knows how debasing that can be, but Anamaria simply nods her assent.  
  
'Well of course,' Elizabeth says, 'You can stay as long as you want. We have plenty of spare rooms.'  
  
'I'll take care of James when she's not here, when you're not here,' Faye says, attempting to address Elizabeth and Anamaria at the same time.  
  
'I'm sure we can have someone else do that' –  
  
Faye dares to halt Elizabeth in mid-sentence.  
  
'He's my brother, well, half-brother, and I want to do it. I mean, I'd be glad to do it.'  
  
There is a silence.  
  
'Your half-brother?' It is Stannard's question, but he withers under the twin forces of Anamaria and his niece's gaze.  
  
'Yes,' they answer in unison.  
  
'Oh, yes, right, I see,' he says, before fading into the background again.  
  
There is another silence, but Faye cannot help but break it.  
  
'I'm sorry, but I wonder if I could go and freshen up and then just sleep for a while? I'm so tired; I've hardly slept at all lately.'  
  
No one objects, and in a strange role-reversal Miss Elizabeth carries her case up to her room for her.  
  
'I missed you, Faye. I felt quite friendless without you,' she says as she sets Faye's case down in her room. Neither says anything else, and cheek- kisses are exchanged and Miss Elizabeth returns to the kitchen.  
  
Faye takes off her boots, and falls onto her bed, the hair ornament from her father jingling as she drops. She is asleep before she hits the bed.  
  
-------  
  
Images flash before her eyes...Lydia...Scarlet...Matthew...Jack...Anamaria ...Matthew...James...Santos...Matthew...Matthew...Matthew...  
  
Faye shouts his name out, and wakes herself up. It takes her a moment to remember where she is, and why she is there. Far away, the clock is chiming. Faye's heart starts to race. She dashes to the window, and leans out as far as she can. Dimly she can just make out the time on the clock- face. It is quarter to six. The Pearl will be gone in fifteen minutes; she can just see it in the harbour, in the last stages of loading supplies.  
  
A maid forever...Who the hell was I kidding? she asks herself. She pulls on her boots as fast as she can, and grabs her still packed case. She calls out to Susie as she races down the halls, and finally collides with her aunt in the main hall.  
  
'Susie, Susie, I'm leaving again. I have to go back, I have to go...' Faye is panting breathlessly.  
  
'What? You only just got back; you don't have to go anywhere.'  
  
Faye crushes her aunt in a hug, and kisses her on the cheek.  
  
'I'm in love with Matthew, and I can't let him sail away without me. I'll come back one day Susie, I promise. Say goodbye to the others for me!'  
  
With that, Faye scurries out of the main door, and down the drive, past coachmen, footmen, and a gardener whose roses are viciously trampled under her boots. All through the town and down to the docks she runs, wondering briefly why none of the navy men have tried to arrest Jack. Possibly they have learned their lesson by now.  
  
The crew of the Pearl are just taking the gangplank up, and are about to raise the anchor.  
  
'No!' Faye shouts, 'Let me aboard!'  
  
Obediently, they put the plank back down and Faye runs up it and smashes into Matthew.  
  
'Faye! You came back!'  
  
'Yes, I came back.' Faye says, gasping for breath. 'I couldn't let you get away that easily.'  
  
The screeching sound of the anchor being pulled up reaches Faye's ears and around them the crew hurry from place to place, struggling to make way. As she ship begins to glide away from Port Royal and out onto the open ocean, Matthew and Faye sink into a kiss that is to last forever.  
  
From the helm, Jack watches, thankful that it never came to a choice for his daughter between the sea and the man she loves. The sea would never have stood a chance. He smiles, and sets the ship to the West.  
  
'Where are we going now?' Faye asks Matthew, as all the hubbub subsides and they are left more or less alone.  
  
'Last I heard, we were going to Mexico. Gold and all. Frankly I can't wait to get my hands on it.'  
  
Faye laughs. 'Spoken like a true pirate.'  
  
Matthew frowns. 'Not that I'm objecting to you being here, but I thought you didn't want to live this life anymore.'  
  
'You once said you'd follow me anywhere. Well, as it turns out, I'd do the same for you.'  
  
'To Mexico, then?'  
  
'Yes, to Mexico. And gold of course.'  
  
'That too.'  
  
--------- --------- ---------  
  
High on a headland in Cancun, Faye stands looking out to sea. The sun is rising before her, and she holds up the bundle in her arms. The tiny girl squirms a little, and blinks at the sunlight.  
  
'This is the world, my Margarita, and down there, that blue is the sea. One day, I'll take you out on it, and we'll see the world together. Would you like that?'  
  
The girl breaks out into a huge grin, the likes of which Faye has only ever seen on one other person. She blinks her dark eyes again – born with them, just like her mother – and then yawns hugely.  
  
Faye takes one last look at the sea, and then turns and looks down on Cancun town where they have lived for the last four years. Gold is plentiful in Mexico, and you don't have to steal it if you have the skill to earn in it vast quantities, by, say, making impressively expensive swords for the nobility.  
  
Faye considers life on the sea, then life here, and life in Port Royal. On the whole, she decides, thinking about her husband and the small squirming person in her arms, I really got the best deal.  
  
*** Well, it's been fun. I've really enjoyed writing this and bugging Katrina when I got stuck for ideas, and I hope you've all enjoyed reading it. Stay tuned, you never know, I might write something else... 


End file.
